Flightradar24 Review

What Flightradar24 Is

Flightradar24 aggregates ADS-B data from over 30,000 ground receivers worldwide. These receivers pick up broadcasts on 1090 MHz from equipped aircraft, and the position, altitude, speed, heading, and ID data are plotted live on the map.

Aircraft without ADS-B are triangulated via MLAT, as multiple receivers detect the same transponder ping. Flightradar24 also uses data feeds from the FAA and Eurocontrol SWIM for commercial flights in the US and EU. Satellite ADS-B covers oceanic routes and areas with sparse receiver coverage, including satellites.

Flightradar24 was founded in Sweden in 2006 and has since become the largest consumer flight tracking network. It is used by investigators and journalists to track aircraft.

What It's Good For

Flightradar24 confirms aircraft movements. You pull a tail number, check the history, and verify times. That's the use case.

You identify aircraft by registration. Enter a tail number, get its history, operator, age, sometimes ownership. FR24 documents travel patterns of high-profile individuals, when their tail numbers are public.

Correlate flights with events. You establish timelines, presence, by combining flight data with other OSINT. Airport-level analysis shows arrivals and departures. All flights at any airport, within a time window, are available. No tail number is needed. FR24's database helps with aircraft type ID for OSINT imagery analysis.

Getting Started

To access flight data, head to flightradar24.com and sign up for a free account. The map loads right away, but logging in is required to view history. The Silver tier, $4.99/month, provides 90 days of history, suitable for basic investigative work. For serious research, the Gold tier, $7.99/month billed annually, offers a full year's worth of data.

To track an aircraft, type its registration, such as N628TS, into the search bar. The aircraft page displays its current or last known location, flight history, and specifications. Clicking on Flight History shows every logged flight, and selecting Playback allows you to see the aircraft's movement over time.

You can set up alerts for a specific tail number, and FR24 will notify you when the aircraft takes off or lands. Additionally, searching for airports by ICAO or IATA code and filtering by time allows you to view flight activity.

Flightradar24 Data Fields

Aircraft detail pages and flight histories provide specific data.

The aircraft detail page includes information such as ICAO24, the unique identifier assigned to the aircraft, registration, the aircraft's registration number, model, the type of aircraft, type, the general category of the aircraft, manufacturer, the company that built the aircraft, year, the year the aircraft was manufactured, serial number, the unique identifier for the aircraft's production, engines, a description of the aircraft's engines, operator, the airline or entity that owns the aircraft, registration date, when the aircraft's registration took effect, expiration date, when the registration expires, and status, whether the aircraft is active.

Flight history returns additional data, including Flight ID, a unique identifier for the flight, date, the date and time the flight occurred, call sign, the airline's designated call sign, altitude, the aircraft's cruising altitude, heading, the aircraft's direction of flight, speed, the aircraft's ground speed, position, the aircraft's geographic location, and squawk, the aircraft's transponder code.

Pricing

The FR24 pricing has changed; check the site for details. The Gold tier is now less expensive with yearly payment, and is suitable for investigators who require history, but it does not include API access. The Business tier is designed for operations and data sellers, and is not intended for researchers.

Limitations

FR24 misses some flights. The LADD program lets aircraft owners opt out of tracking. Private jets, celebrity planes, gone.

Military traffic is mostly filtered. Some military planes transmit ADS-B, fake call signs and all. Absence on FR24 doesn't mean it didn't fly.

The Business API costs $99.99/month. Individual investigators are out of luck.

Coverage is solid over Europe, North America, and Australia, not so much Central Africa, parts of Asia, and oceans. Satellite ADS-B helps there.

The Gold tier gets 365 days of history. Older flights are not available. ADSBExchange has more archives. FAA records go back years for US aircraft.

Alternatives

ADSBExchange is your alternative when FlightRadar24 misses private jets. It doesn't filter LADD aircraft. The interface looks dated. The free tier is limited. Historical data exists, but it's a bit messy.

FlightAware dominates US commercial aviation. Domestic routes are well-covered historically. International private jets are not well-covered. Their Firehose API is popular with devs.

RadarBox and FR24 have similar feature sets, with different ground stations in some areas. Planefinder is stripped-down, with fewer fields and shallow history, so you won't dig deep with it.

The FAA Aircraft Registry is a must-have. The registered owner of any US N-number is listed there. FlightRadar24 sometimes skips owner details, but the FAA doesn't.

Verdict

FR24 Gold costs $7.99/month. This is the sweet spot for tracking aircraft. You get 365 days of history. The UI is clean, alerts work.

Most investigations are covered. FR24 doesn't let you opt out of LADD. ADSBExchange still matters then. Start with FR24. If a tail number isn't there, switch to ADSBExchange.

FR24 Gold costs $7.99/month. This is the sweet spot for tracking aircraft. You get 365 days of history. The UI is clean, alerts work. Most investigations are covered. FR24 doesn't let you opt out of LADD. ADSBExchange still matters then. Start with FR24. If a tail number isn't there, switch to ADSBExchange.

See Also

• Flightradar24 vs ADS-B Exchange: Which Flight Tracker for OSINT?
• The Bellingcat Online Investigation Toolkit: What

Further Reading

• Flightradar24 official site
• Flightradar24 how it works