What plane is above me? Live aircraft over the UK
The map above shows aircraft over the United Kingdom and the surrounding sea as they report their position by transponder, picked up by a network of receivers on the ground. It refreshes every few seconds, so what you see is close to what is in the sky right now. To find the plane you just spotted, press the green Above me button. Your browser asks once for your location, the map centres on you as a blue dot, and a list of the five nearest aircraft appears under the map with callsign, type, distance, direction and altitude.
If you would rather not share your location, type your town into the search box on the map. The map jumps to that place and shows the same list of the five nearest aircraft. Your location is only used inside your browser to centre the map and work out distances. It is not stored and it is not sent to our server or to anyone else.
Yesterday over London
Saturday 31 October 2026, within 5 km of the city centre.
Overflights per hour
How high?
- Below 3,000 ft (about 900 m)27
- 3,000 to 10,000 ft (about 900 to 3,000 m)15
- Above 10,000 ft (about 3,000 m)129
Most common aircraft types
- Boeing 737-800 33
- Boeing 737 MAX 8 20
- Airbus A320neo 14
- Robinson R44 8
- Airbus A319 7
- Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner 6
Airlines
- Ryanair 21
- Jet2 15
- easyJet 9
- Norwegian 9
- SAS 8
- TUI Airways 6
Lowest overflights
| Time | Flight | Aircraft | Altitude | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:59 | SXN19 | Leonardo AW109 | below 0 ft* | 3.2 km |
| 12:37 | GMPSC | Airbus H145 | 180 ft (50 m) | 2.3 km |
| 14:47 | LHC22 | AEROSPATIALE AS-355 Ecureuil 2 | 300 ft (90 m) | 0.5 km |
| 17:31 | TDT04 | Leonardo AW109 | 390 ft (120 m) | 4.8 km |
| 15:38 | LHC22 | AEROSPATIALE AS-355 Ecureuil 2 | 400 ft (120 m) | 0.8 km |
An asterisk next to the altitude means the aircraft is reporting a pressure altitude below zero. That altitude is measured against a fixed standard air pressure, so at high air pressure an aircraft flying low or just landing can end up below zero.
Data: FlyItalyADSB (CC BY-SA 4.0). Updated nightly.
What flew over earlier?
Did you see or hear a low-flying aircraft or helicopter earlier and want to know which one it was? Choose a place or your own location, a day and an hour, and a radius of 2, 5 or 10 km, and you will see which aircraft passed over within that radius at the time, with time, flight, aircraft, altitude and distance. You can look back as far as 17 August 2026, based on data from the FlyItalyADSB receiver network.
What you are most likely looking at over the UK
Most of what crosses the sky over Britain falls into three groups. The first is traffic arriving at and departing from the London airports, Heathrow and Gatwick above all. If you live anywhere in the south east, the aircraft over your head is quite often descending towards one of these two, with wheels and flaps appearing as it gets closer in. The second group is traffic to and from Manchester, which does the same job for the north west of England and the Midlands. The third group is the long-haul traffic that is not landing in the UK at all: flights between Europe and North America that cross the country at cruising height on their way to or from the Atlantic.
The altitude column in the list under the map is the quickest way to tell these apart. An aircraft a few thousand feet up, flying slowly in a straight line, is almost certainly on an approach. One at tens of thousands of feet, leaving a long contrail and showing a far-off destination when you click it, is simply passing over.
Aircraft going round in circles near London
If you are under the approach to Heathrow and see several aircraft flying a loop one above the other, you are probably looking at a holding stack. Heathrow is usually so busy that arrivals cannot all land as they arrive, so they are held in one of four stacks, known as Bovingdon, Lambourne, Ockham and Biggin, until air traffic control can fit them into the landing sequence. Each aircraft flies an oval pattern and steps down a level as the one below it leaves for the runway.
On the map this looks like a cluster of aircraft close together at different altitudes. Click one and you will see its callsign, registration, type, altitude, speed and heading, and in most cases its route and a photo.
Why your street has planes on some days and not others
Aircraft take off and land into the wind. When the wind changes direction, the airport switches the direction in which its runways are used, and the whole pattern of arrivals and departures around it turns through 180 degrees. The line of aircraft that queued up over your house yesterday now lines up on the other side of the airport, and a street that was quiet suddenly has a steady stream of traffic overhead.
This is the single biggest reason people notice planes one week and not the next. Nothing has changed about the number of flights, only the direction they fly. A quick look at the map shows it straight away: the arrivals form a long line pointing at the runway, and you can see which end of the airport they are heading for today.
Reading the list under the map
The list shows the five aircraft nearest to you. Distance tells you how far away the aircraft is across the ground, and direction tells you where to look. Combine those with altitude and you can usually match a dot on the map to the plane you can see.
- Callsign: the flight number or identifier used by air traffic control.
- Type: the aircraft model, which also helps you judge size.
- Altitude: low means approach or departure, high means passing through.
Click any aircraft for more, including its registration and, when known, where it came from and where it is going.
Why the plane you saw might not be on the map
The map only shows aircraft that broadcast their position with a working transponder and that are within range of a receiver. That covers the great majority of airliners, but not everything. Some military and government flights do not broadcast a position, or are not shown. Small aircraft, including many light aircraft and helicopters, may not carry the right equipment at all.
Range is the other limit. Receivers pick up signals by line of sight, so a high aircraft can be seen from a long way off while a low one disappears behind hills and buildings. Low-flying aircraft, especially in parts of the country with few receivers, are the ones most often missing. If you saw something low and it is not in the list, this is the most likely reason, not a fault with your browser.
Frequently asked questions
What plane is flying over my house right now?
Press the green Above me button on the map, or type your town into the search box. The list under the map shows the five nearest aircraft with their callsign, type, distance, direction and altitude. Pick the one that matches what you can see and click it for the registration, route and a photo.
Why are planes circling over my house?
Near London this is usually a holding stack. When Heathrow has more arrivals than it can land straight away, aircraft fly an oval pattern at set heights in one of four stacks, Bovingdon, Lambourne, Ockham or Biggin, until air traffic control can slot them into the landing sequence. On the map they appear as a tight group of aircraft at different altitudes.
Why do planes fly over my house some days and not others?
Aircraft land and take off into the wind, so when the wind changes the airport reverses the direction in which it uses its runways. The approach path moves to the opposite side of the airport, which is why a street can be busy one week and quiet the next. The map shows the current direction as a line of arrivals pointing at the runway.
For the full picture of UK airspace, open the live flight radar, or try the helicopter tracker if what you saw was low and noisy, and the military aircraft radar for fast jets and transport aircraft.