Eyes on the sky

One’s mind is immediately directed towards the flight monitoring that exists via the internet through various apps and websites. On further investigation, the details of a flight that can be accessed and the way in which they are presented is nothing short of incredible.

Once upon a time not long ago, arrival times were a recorded loop echoing down a landline – one of those telephones with a numbered wheel on the front and a curly chord to the handset. With the introduction of the internet, airline websites were able to list their arrival and departure times in a more user-friendly manner. Still, even this service was nothing in comparison to the modern apps. The modern apps feature real time representations of flights, trailing their known track and predicting their future flight paths and all in living colour.

Tap on the tiny aeroplane and a window can present a photo of the aircraft, its in-flight altitude, speed, transponder code and remaining flight time among many other details. Set to a colourful map as a backdrop, the terminal airspace resembles that air traffic control game that kids would play on a smartphone as aeroplanes and helicopters clip across the screen. For pilots signing on, this real-time presentation may well offer the most up-to-date estimated time of arrival for an aircraft they may be waiting to fly.

Not enough? There are 3-dimensional ‘virtual’ presentations offering a view of the world from the aircraft as it flies vectors and descends towards its destination and a feature that allows for a phone to be pointed at an aircraft in the sky to reveal its identity and data. There is possibly little wonder in it for some, but for those of us who can remember leaving money on the step for the milkman, it’s amazing.

And once the brakes of the aircraft are parked, the story remains. Flight details to the minute can be accessed from the archive, including a diagrammatic plot of the route including any holding patterns or go-arounds that may have taken place. Speed and height on approach can be found in tabulated form and it could be suspected that more than one pilot has referred to these times when filling out reports. However, this information reaches further afield than interested pilots, it is out there for the world to see.

Consequently, before any aircraft experiencing difficulties has even had the opportunity to return its wheels to the earth, folks in coffee shops are querying the non-standard flight path crawling across the screen of their phone. Screenshots are being taken and shared across social media, where the comments section can commence the conjecture. Meanwhile, the crew are still sweating it out.

Speculation has moved from the aftermath to real-time and as always, the crew has no form of rebuttal. In the wake of an incident, the investigators will ultimately pore over reams of data and transcripts, weather readings and recordings before they tentatively release their preliminary findings. Social media has no such limitations and in fact it would seem that any delay only serves to dilute the ‘breaking news’ element of the information.

It is an interesting collision of established aviation etiquette and the immediacy of the modern world. Refraining from comment until the investigation has concluded has given way in some quarters to open debate without all the facts on hand. And whereas the report may be some time in coming and take a good deal of reading to digest by the few that take the trouble, internet comment is potentially reaching thousands in an instant and can be very difficult to erase. Added into the issue is that those first comments may be all that many people ever consume and the ill-informed innuendo may survive to be perceived as fact. Aviation is not alone in this shortcoming.

For all of this, the information generated by real-time flight tracking and the on-flow of internet debate is not necessarily a bad thing. For instance, when MH17 was brought down over the Ukraine, it was this readily available information that highlighted that the Malaysian airline was not alone in choosing to fly the route at the time. Furthermore, some of the debate triggered surrounding incidents can raise very valid points and even draw in very knowledgeable comment, however, it is also done without any real knowledge of credentials and even identity.

In most cases the information is used for general interest and it only surfaces with any controversy in the broader media when something goes wrong in flight. As entertainment, it is undoubtedly interesting, but as a tool for social judgement it can certainly be premature.

Long may such aviation apps continue to be developed and enjoyed, for they ultimately foster an interest in aviation. However, like the transfer of all information in the modern age, we need to be critical and refrain from becoming instantaneous armchair experts. Pilots joke that ‘Big Brother’ crept into the cockpit years ago, now they fly with the knowledge that there are even more eyes on the sky.