KDCA · DCA · Washington, District of Columbia
Planes near DCA: live flight tracking at Ronald Reagan Washington National
Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA / KDCA) serves Washington, District of Columbia, United States. On the Potomac, inside the most restricted airspace in the United States.
The live map
Aircraft the volunteer receiver network can currently hear around Washington. The frame is fixed on the field; tap or click an aircraft to open its full details.
Nothing here is filtered. Military aircraft, aircraft in the FAA's LADD privacy programme and aircraft using temporary addresses all appear the same way anything else does. Open the full map to pan, zoom and switch layers.
Movements we watched happen
Snapshot written . This page refreshes by itself while it is open.
These are transitions the receiver network actually observed at DCA, each with the time it was seen. Nothing here is guessed from a timetable.
Why there may be fewer departures than arrivals
A departure is only counted once a receiver has seen the aircraft on the ground here first. That guard stops us inventing takeoffs for aircraft that merely flew overhead, and it costs us real ones: hearing an aircraft sitting on an airport surface needs a receiver with line of sight to that surface, which is the hardest reception there is. An arrival only needs the aircraft to have been seen airborne, and airborne coverage is very good.
So at any airport without a clear view of the ground, this list will show fewer departures than actually happened. If you see more arrivals than departures below, read that as a fact about where the antennas are, not about the airport.
| Time | Movement | Flight | Aircraft |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02:58 UTC | Arrival | AAL1788 | A319 · N836AW |
| 02:57 UTC | Departure | RPA4450 | E75L · N132HQ |
| 02:56 UTC | Arrival | UAL8186 | B38M · N47357 |
| 02:54 UTC | Arrival | N324PH | EC35 |
| 02:54 UTC | Arrival | JBU1880 | BCS3 · N3241J |
| 02:52 UTC | Departure | JIA5432 | CRJ7 · N535EA |
| 02:49 UTC | Arrival | RPA4463 | E75L · N115HQ |
| 02:48 UTC | Departure | JIA5283 | CRJ9 · N549NN |
| 02:47 UTC | Arrival | SWA3825 | B38M · N8861Q |
| 02:44 UTC | Departure | JIA5065 | CRJ7 · N509AE |
| 02:42 UTC | Departure | ENY3975 | E75L · N262NN |
| 02:41 UTC | Departure | AAL3117 | A319 · N840AW |
Showing the most recent 12 of 30 in the current recording window.
What appears to be inbound and outbound right now
Where the aircraft in range right now are most likely heading, worked out from their callsigns rather than watched happening.
How this list is built
We take the aircraft the receiver network can currently hear, read the callsign each one is broadcasting, and look that callsign up in an index of the routes it has actually flown before. An entry means this callsign's most commonly observed route ends at DCA. That is a good guide to where a flight is going. It is not a flight plan: nobody has told us today's routing, and we would rather say that than dress an inference up as a schedule.
The consequences are worth knowing. A diversion or an unusual routing will be listed wrong. A charter, a positioning leg, or any flight the index has not seen before is missing entirely. You will occasionally see an aircraft here sitting on the ground on the far side of a continent, which is the method showing its working rather than hiding it. There are no scheduled times or arrival estimates on this page because neither can be computed honestly from what we hold.
For gates, delays and cancellations the airline and the airport are authoritative. This page is for what is actually in the air.
Inbound nearest 20 of 29
| Flight | From | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UAL8186B38M · N47357 | San FranciscoKSFO / SFO | on the ground | 10 kt | 0 nmNNW of the field |
| JBU1880BCS3 · N3241J | Fort LauderdaleKFLL / FLL | on the ground | 4 kt | 0 nmWNW of the field |
| DAL1825BCS3 · N335DU | New YorkKLGA / LGA | 9,850 ft | 262 kt | 27 nmNE of the field |
| TRP7A139 · N389MD | Patuxent RiverKNHK / NHK | 1,050 ft | 147 kt | 27 nmSE of the field |
| RPA5704E75L · N236JQ | BostonKBOS / BOS | 11,850 ft | 295 kt | 43 nmNE of the field |
| AAL2752B38M · N327SK | Dallas-Fort WorthKDFW / DFW | 20,925 ft | 439 kt | 70 nmWSW of the field |
| AAL2897B38M · N343RY | MiamiKMIA / MIA | 24,875 ft | 444 kt | 90 nmSSW of the field |
| RPA4719E75L · N414YX | New YorkKLGA / LGA | 9,875 ft | 359 kt | 134 nmNE of the field |
| RPA4495E75L · N433YX | NashvilleKBNA / BNA | 28,000 ft | 396 kt | 139 nmS of the field |
| AAL1269A319 · N5007E | CharlotteKCLT / CLT | 26,725 ft | 504 kt | 224 nmSSW of the field |
| AAL2077B38M · N313VA | Dallas-Fort WorthKDFW / DFW | 37,000 ft | 522 kt | 255 nmWSW of the field |
| JIA9952CRJ7 · N705PS | ManchesterKMHT / MHT | 10,825 ft | 298 kt | 276 nmSW of the field |
| JIA5503CRJ9 · N550NN | MadisonKMSN / MSN | on the ground | 0 kt | 287 nmSW of the field |
| AAL958A319 · N750UW | OrlandoKMCO / MCO | 38,975 ft | 458 kt | 288 nmS of the field |
| AAL1982A321 · N135NN | JacksonvilleKJAX / JAX | 23,825 ft | 422 kt | 373 nmSW of the field |
| SWA222B38M · N8921Q | New OrleansKMSY / MSY | 41,000 ft | 491 kt | 405 nmWNW of the field |
| DAL2961A320 · N371NW | MinneapolisKMSP / MSP | 37,025 ft | 506 kt | 550 nmWNW of the field |
| AAL2281B738 · N954AN | KPBI | 28,000 ft | 484 kt | 635 nmW of the field |
| SWA4496B738 · N8623F | ChicagoKMDW / MDW | 39,000 ft | 480 kt | 695 nmSW of the field |
| SWA3351B38M · N8809L | DallasKDAL / DAL | 9,925 ft | 277 kt | 861 nmWSW of the field |
Outbound nearest 20 of 29
| Flight | To | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAL544A320 · N126UW | TampaKTPA / TPA | on the ground | 2 kt | 0 nmNNW of the field |
| JIA5656CRJ9 · N552NN | MilwaukeeKMKE / MKE | on the ground | 17 kt | 0 nmSSW of the field |
| JIA5373CRJ7 · N501BG | MadisonKMSN / MSN | 550 ft | 128 kt | 3 nmS of the field |
| N740MHEC35 | Camp SpringsKADW / ADW | 350 ft | 81 kt | 4 nmN of the field |
| JIA5432CRJ7 · N535EA | Des MoinesKDSM / DSM | 14,900 ft | 347 kt | 25 nmWNW of the field |
| JIA5283CRJ9 · N549NN | ManchesterKMHT / MHT | 21,950 ft | 452 kt | 43 nmENE of the field |
| JIA5418CRJ9 · N560NN | SyracuseKSYR / SYR | 30,375 ft | 401 kt | 68 nmN of the field |
| JIA5065CRJ7 · N509AE | AlbanyKALB / ALB | 23,000 ft | 481 kt | 75 nmNE of the field |
| N431PB407 | ManassasKHEF / MNZ | 2,800 ft | 114 kt | 77 nmSW of the field |
| ENY3975E75L · N262NN | SyracuseKSYR / SYR | 29,000 ft | 491 kt | 87 nmN of the field |
| JIA5338CRJ9 · N569NN | NorfolkKORF / ORF | 32,000 ft | 412 kt | 164 nmW of the field |
| RPA4452E75L · N434YX | IndianapolisKIND / IND | 24,000 ft | 376 kt | 184 nmNNW of the field |
| RPA5768E75L · N202JQ | New YorkKLGA / LGA | on the ground | 9 kt | 186 nmNE of the field |
| RPA4360E75L · N422YX | ChicagoKORD / ORD | 29,675 ft | 507 kt | 232 nmN of the field |
| JIA5344CRJ9 · N605NN | RochesterKROC / ROC | 6,850 ft | 263 kt | 233 nmN of the field |
| JIA5025CRJ7 · N539EA | JacksonKJAN / JAN | 36,000 ft | 407 kt | 371 nmWSW of the field |
| JIA5078CRJ7 · N511AE | BirminghamKBHM / BHM | 34,000 ft | 425 kt | 463 nmSW of the field |
| JIA5582CRJ9 · N558NN | St LouisKSTL / STL | 31,975 ft | 411 kt | 515 nmWSW of the field |
| JIA5547CRJ9 · N603NN | JacksonvilleKJAX / JAX | 9,875 ft | 353 kt | 528 nmSSW of the field |
| JIA5554CRJ9 · N602NN | HoustonKIAH / IAH | 2,075 ft | 247 kt | 703 nmSW of the field |
About Ronald Reagan Washington National
- ICAO codeKDCA
- IATA codeDCA
- ServesWashington
- RegionDistrict of Columbia, United States
- Coordinates38.852°N, 77.038°W
Reagan National sits on the Potomac River across from central Washington, closer to a national capital than almost any comparable airport. The prohibited airspace over the city leaves a narrow usable corridor, and traffic follows the river rather than flying the geometry an unconstrained field would use. The result is one of the most recognisable approach paths anywhere.
The restrictions are visible as absence. Draw the map wide and there is a hole over central Washington that essentially nothing enters, with the traffic threading around and along the river instead.
What the codes mean
Airports carry two identifiers and they are not interchangeable.
DCA is the IATA code: three letters, the one printed on a
boarding pass and a baggage tag, assigned for commercial purposes and reused across
the world without any geographic logic.
KDCA is the ICAO code: four letters, used by air traffic
control, flight planning systems and trackers like this one. Its first
letter, K, marks
the contiguous United States, because ICAO allocates the code space by region.
The callsigns in the lists above are a third thing again. A callsign is what the crew typed into the transponder for this leg, so it changes flight by flight, while the registration and the 24-bit hex address stay with the airframe. When a callsign and a registration disagree, the registration is usually the more reliable of the two.
How to read the numbers
Altitude is pressure altitude, which is what the aircraft's air data system reads with a standard pressure setting. It is not height above the ground and it is not always the altitude the crew is flying to. Near Washington that gap is most obvious on approach, when a tracker can show a figure that does not match what is on the flight deck.
Ground speed is speed across the earth, not through the air. A strong tailwind can add a hundred knots or more to it without the aircraft flying any faster, which is why two aircraft at the same level going opposite ways can show wildly different numbers. Track is the direction of travel over the ground, which is not the direction the nose is pointing when there is any crosswind at all.
Aircraft go missing from this map for reasons that have nothing to do with the aircraft. Reception is line of sight, so terrain and distance cut it off abruptly; a good deal of light aviation in the United States broadcasts on 978 MHz rather than 1090 MHz; and plenty of aircraft, including gliders and older light types, carry no ADS-B at all and are not required to. How ADS-B works covers all of that properly.
Other airports on the map
The nearest fields with their own live page:
