Click here to launch AirportMonitor™ LAX immediately. Welcome to the new updated version of Los Angeles International Airport's Internet Flight Tracking System - AirportMonitor v 2.0 Gold. This system allows you to watch the movement of flights and air traffic patterns within the greater Los Angeles region. These flight tracks, although taken from actual raw radar data, are not in real time. For security, there is a delay of about ten minutes as indicated by the date and time located in the Date/Time box located in Flight Information field on right side of the screen. This delay can be useful if you notice an overflight of your neighborhood and you need time to bring up the LAX Internet Flight Tracking System to find out the identification of the aircraft type and its altitude. Please keep in mind that due to the present national security situation, military and sensitive national security flights are filtered out and will not appear on the system. Here's what's new! Pause/Resume: You can now pause the flight activity, click on flights in pause mode to see who they are, then resume where you left off, (works in both live and replay mode) - useful for taking the time to find the flight you want at your own pace Fast Forward in replay mode lets you choose faster replay speeds, to view the flight you want quicker Color-coding for alternate airports - a new color for flights from nearby airports local helps clarify and sort traffic Helicopter identification - some helicopters, depending on their speed and flight behavior, will be identified by a helicopter icon (helicopters that are flying like airplanes may still be identified by a black airplane icon). Online help page - frequently asked questions and topics are now conveniently located right on the application. Please take a moment to read the information below, to familiarize yourself with what AirportMonitor does, and how it works. If this is your first time using AirportMonitor, we recommend that you first read the material on this page to familiarize yourself with how it works. If you choose to bypass this page, you can always access the help page on AirportMonitor Using LAX AirportMonitor AirportMonitor shows the flight tracks of aircraft arriving and departing to and from LAX, and from other airports throughout the region. It also shows aircraft transiting through our airspace. Green aircraft icons represent departures from LAX. Blue aircraft icons represent arrivals to LAX. Black aircraft icons represent aircraft operating to or from another airport in the region, general aviation aircraft, or aircraft that are transiting through the region at high altitudes. Red indicates that you have selected a specific aircraft by clicking on it with your computer mouse. Yellow aircraft icons represent aircraft operating to or from the following airports: Long Beach (LGB) Santa Monica (SMO) Hawthorne (HHR) Torrance (TOR) The size of the airplane icons is the same regardless of which type of aircraft it represents. At closer zoom levels, the size of the plane icon is larger than at wider zoom levels, to make the screen easier to view, and to simulate the effect of a changing "bird's eye view." Zoom and PAN Just to the right of the map you will notice 5 buttons with corresponding zoom settings ranging from 5 miles to 80 miles. In order to change the preset zoom level, just click the button corresponding to the zoom level you desire. Then using the compass (shown on your left) click the direction you desire. The middle button will bring you back to starting center point which is LAX. The panning function works for the 5 mile and 10 mile (2 pans in any direction) and the 20 mile (1 pan in any direction). There is no panning for the 40 and 80 mile maps. Remember: First select the zoom level, then pan. General Aviation Identification "General Aviation" (GA) is a term that covers both small, private planes as well as corporate jets. One way these are divided is into "VFR" ("Visual Flight Rules," generally the smaller, private propeller aircraft) and "IFR" ("Instrument Flight Rules," generally the larger private or corporate jets). If a GA aircraft is flying "VFR," it will be identified as "General Aviation" with only the altitude displayed; and it will not contain aircraft type, origin or destination. This is due to the nature of the data transmitted by the aircraft's transponder. If a GA aircraft is flying "IFR", AirportMonitor will usually have all of the same information fields available as for scheduled airline flights. Helicopters are usually represented by black helicopter icons, although they may also show as a black airplane icon as well. Helicopters generally fly under VFR thus identification of the specific operator is not possible. "Current" Mode The default view for AirportMonitor is "Current," which is the actual flight activity around LAX, with a 10-minute delay for security. When you click on a flight in "current" mode, it will display SOME of that flight's identification (limited in current mode for security): Aircraft type Altitude "Pause" Mode When you click on "Pause", it will pause the display for viewing. You can click on any plane icon while in pause, and it will display the available flight information. Clicking "Restart" will pick up the flight tracking where you left off (to get back to the current time, hit "Current"). Pause and Resume work in both Current and Replay modes. Replay Mode AirportMonitor makes all flights available in "replay mode" and makes them available up to three months for past flight activity to be played back at any time. This makes it easy to review flight activity at your leisure. Flight numbers become active for a given flight one hour after it has first appeared on AirportMonitor. When you click on a plane in replay mode, "Airline/Flight number" and "Origin and Destination" airports are added to the other information available in current mode ("aircraft type" and "altitude"). To operate the replay, use the pull-down menus at the top of the page and enter the corresponding date and time you wish (using the 24-hour clock system), and then press the Start Replay button. To end the replay and return to the 10-minute delay mode press the "Current" button. It is recommended that you enter the time a few minutes prior to the time you are interested in as to allow the system to fully populate with data. Replay Mode Speed In Replay Mode you have the option to choose the replay speed of the system. This is useful for "fast-forwarding" to a flight or track of interest without waiting for it to appear in normal time. First choose the date and time of replay; then select the playback speed you desire; then click on "replay". You can also adjust the speed of playback after you are already in replay mode. You also have the option to in Replay Mode - it works exactly the same way as it does in "Current" mode. (see above) Help Page Click this button on the top right corner of the AirportMonitor page to receive troubleshooting tips and answers to the most frequently asked questions. Understanding Airline and Aircraft Codes The information contained in some of the data fields is encoded to conform to standard FAA contractions (or shorthand). If you wish to decode the information in the Flight ID, Aircraft Type, and Origin and Destination fields please click on the following link: (DECODE PAGE) Printing from AirportMonitor Printing from AirportMonitor is a simple copy-and-paste process called “Screen Capture” or “Print Screen.” To print any AirportMonitor screen you’re looking at, do the following: Select the page or screen you want to print On a laptop computer hit the Function [Fn] and the [F11 key] simultaneously to copy exactly what is on your screen at that moment On a desktop computer hit the [Shift Key] and the [Print Screen] simultaneously to copy exactly what is on your screen at that moment. Open a new document in any word processing or graphics program Select “Paste” The image of the screen you copied will appear as a single picture Print (or Save, then Print, if you want to keep the image) A Word about Radar Aircraft tracking, using secondary surveillance radar and the software that supports it, while highly reliable, is also complex. Sometimes circumstances can interfere with the signal, causing temporary distortions. For example, you will probably notice that an aircraft flying directly over LAX may temporarily disappear from the screen and then reappear away from the airport. This is due to the aircraft passing directly over the radar antenna and the temporary loss of signal. This is known in the industry as the cone of silence. You may also notice aircraft icons sometimes "dropping off" and/or suddenly doing unusual things. This is especially true in the area immediately around LAX, but could also occur away from the airport as well. These "ghost" aircraft are due to radar and aircraft transponder reflections from the ground and from the high-rise buildings around the airport, and possibly from terrain and meteorological conditions farther away from LAX. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS/INFORMATION AirportMonitor is designed to run on any computer that supports Java Applets and JavaScript. A reasonable amount of memory is necessary. A minimum 64 MB of RAM is recommended. AirportMonitor runs best in Netscape or Internet Explorer version 3.0 and higher. JavaScript and Java must be enabled in your browser. AirportMonitor may take some time to load and begin playing, depending on the speed of your communication link and computer processor. The performance of AirportMonitor will be adversely affected by slow or intermittent Internet connections. AirportMonitor is a resource intensive application that is best run without any other applications open at the same time. The optimal screen resolution for viewing this site is 1024 x 768. This site does not work with MSN TV also know as WebTV. LIABILITY STATEMENT THIS WEB PAGE AND THE FLIGHT TRACKING INFORMATION IS A PUBLIC RESOURCE OF GENERAL INFORMATION. THE USE OF THIS SITE IS FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES ONLY. THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES AND THE DEPARTMENT OF AIRPORTS MAKES NO WARRANTY, REPRESENTATION OR GUARANTEE AS TO THE CONTENT, SEQUENCE, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY OF THE DATABASE INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREIN. THE USER OF THIS SITE SHOULD NOT RELY ON THE DATA PROVIDED HEREIN FOR ANY REASON. THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES AND THE DEPARTMENT OF AIRPORTS EXPLICITLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES AND THE DEPARTMENT OF AIRPORTS SHALL ASSUME NO LIABILITY FOR: ANY ERRORS OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE INFORMATION PROVIDED REGARDLESS OF HOW CAUSED; OR ANY DECISION MADE OR ACTION TAKEN OR NOT TAKEN BY THE USER OF THIS SITE IN RELIANCE UPON ANY INFORMATION OR DATA FURNISHED HEREUNDER. 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