Deep Dive Into New York City Air Traffic Control

If you live along the north shore of Long Island in the greater Huntington / Northport / Cold Spring Harbor region, as I do, you’ve probably noticed that large commercial airliners are often flying right over our heads, one after another, at very low altitudes. It turns out that we’re in one of the major approach patterns to JFK, and when traffic is heavy, aircraft from all over the world and from all over the U.S. are parading north over Elwood Road in East Northport, banking left towards Huntington, and then banking left again over Oyster Bay to line up for JFK Runway 22 Left.

Who doesn’t wonder from time to time where an airplane is coming from, where it’s going, or how high it’s cruising? Well, there’s a free program named flightradar24 that provides live, incredibly detailed flight radar tracking data for flights anywhere in the world. With just a few clicks you can zoom in on your neighborhood and magically watch aircraft fly across your computer screen while simultaneously watching – for real – out your living room window. Click on the plane and you’ll discover its origin, destination, airline, flight number, aircraft model, altitude, speed, and heading – along with a trail showing its entire flight path from where it’s been, and where it’s going. Click on the 3D option and your perspective will shift from looking down from the heavens, to a birds-eye view from inside the cockpit or from behind the tail. You can also listen to air traffic controllers and pilots communicate in real time (for free) using another website tool named liveatc.net. When you put these two capabilities together – tracking the planes and listening to the controllers and pilots – it puts you right in the middle of this exciting, demanding, fast-paced world.

I discovered all this six months ago, and found it mesmerizing. We also happen to live just 35 miles east of the second-busiest airspace in the world – New York City. And because New York City is home to three major airports – John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International, and LaGuardia – there’s a lot going on in our back yard. And so it became my passion to learn the approach and departure patterns for these three airports by observing flights using flightradar24.

Then I wrote a post in my blog to describe how it all works, including detailed descriptions of the airports, the approach patterns, and controller / pilot lingo. The post includes an eight minute video containing radar playback at 24 times normal speed for approach patterns into JFK, LaGuardia and Newark, and also includes air traffic control / pilot communications. The post is called “Deep Dive Into New York City Air Traffic Control Using Flightradar24.” Please click HERE if you’d like to check it out. I have no affiliation with flightradar24 or liveatc.net.

Thank You,

Joseph Gunn