KDTW · DTW · Detroit, Michigan
Planes near DTW: live flight tracking at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW / KDTW) serves Detroit, Michigan, United States. A Great Lakes hub sitting right on an international border.
The live map
Aircraft the volunteer receiver network can currently hear around Detroit. 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 DTW, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02:57 UTC | Departure | DAL2424 | A319 · N320NB |
| 02:53 UTC | Arrival | DAL2172 | A321 · N370DN |
| 02:52 UTC | Arrival | JBU1337 | BCS3 · N3058J |
| 02:51 UTC | Departure | DAL1321 | B712 · N923AT |
| 02:48 UTC | Arrival | AAL3108 | B738 · N802NN |
| 02:46 UTC | Departure | EDV5478 | CRJ7 · N641CA |
| 02:42 UTC | Departure | DAL136 | A333 · N817NW |
| 02:40 UTC | Departure | FDX1218 | B763 · N280FE |
| 02:39 UTC | Departure | DAL2603 | A321 · N118DY |
| 02:38 UTC | Departure | DAL1187 | A321 · N121DZ |
| 02:34 UTC | Departure | EDV5136 | CRJ9 · N905XJ |
| 02:32 UTC | Departure | UPS1481 | A306 · N124UP |
Showing the most recent 12 of 17 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 DTW. 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 15 aircraft
| Flight | From | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JBU1337BCS3 · N3058J | BostonKBOS / BOS | on the ground | 12 kt | 1 nmN of the field |
| DAL2172A321 · N370DN | San DiegoKSAN / SAN | on the ground | 12 kt | 1 nmSW of the field |
| AAL3108B738 · N802NN | Dallas-Fort WorthKDFW / DFW | on the ground | 6 kt | 1 nmNNE of the field |
| EDV4895CRJ9 · N134EV | Fayetteville/Springdale/KXNA / XNA | 6,450 ft | 268 kt | 6 nmNW of the field |
| DAL2896A321 · N308DN | BostonKBOS / BOS | 4,750 ft | 221 kt | 16 nmNE of the field |
| RPA3412E75L · N761YX | NewarkKEWR / EWR | 8,500 ft | 274 kt | 27 nmENE of the field |
| DAL1529A319 · N353NB | HoustonKIAH / IAH | 19,800 ft | 380 kt | 74 nmSW of the field |
| DAL1014A321 · N389DN | New YorkKLGA / LGA | 30,000 ft | 413 kt | 100 nmENE of the field |
| DAL708A21N · N537DT | Los AngelesKLAX / LAX | 29,450 ft | 482 kt | 144 nmW of the field |
| AAL370A319 · N824AW | CharlotteKCLT / CLT | 34,975 ft | 452 kt | 154 nmSSE of the field |
| AAL2649B738 · N930NN | MiamiKMIA / MIA | 37,000 ft | 480 kt | 214 nmS of the field |
| DAL2255A21N · N615DN | Salt Lake CityKSLC / SLC | 35,000 ft | 476 kt | 352 nmWNW of the field |
| DAL651B752 · N823DX | AtlantaKATL / ATL | 27,000 ft | 487 kt | 368 nmS of the field |
| SWA4822N8780Q | St LouisKSTL / STL | 39,000 ft | 483 kt | 440 nmWSW of the field |
| UAL1344B739 · N62896 | ChicagoKORD / ORD | on the ground | 7 kt | 1,802 nmW of the field |
Outbound nearest 20 of 51
| Flight | To | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SKW3909CRJ9 · N804SK | KalamazooKAZO / AZO | on the ground | 11 kt | 0 nmN of the field |
| RPA5634E75L · N210JQ | ColumbusKCMH / CMH | on the ground | 13 kt | 0 nmENE of the field |
| DAL2424A319 · N320NB | Traverse CityKTVC / TVC | 5,000 ft | 265 kt | 6 nmWSW of the field |
| DAL1321B712 · N923AT | Kansas CityKMCI / MCI | 15,150 ft | 369 kt | 29 nmWNW of the field |
| DAL1037A321 · N315DN | Fort LauderdaleKFLL / FLL | 15,575 ft | 299 kt | 31 nmSSE of the field |
| EDV5478CRJ7 · N641CA | Cincinnati / CovingtonKCVG / CVG | 20,000 ft | 368 kt | 64 nmSSW of the field |
| DAL136A333 · N817NW | AmsterdamEHAM / AMS | 22,400 ft | 449 kt | 87 nmE of the field |
| FDX1218B763 · N280FE | MemphisKMEM / MEM | 36,000 ft | 471 kt | 120 nmSSW of the field |
| DAL2603A321 · N118DY | New YorkKLGA / LGA | 30,475 ft | 500 kt | 123 nmE of the field |
| DAL1187A321 · N121DZ | BostonKBOS / BOS | 36,425 ft | 476 kt | 129 nmE of the field |
| EDV5136CRJ9 · N905XJ | MontréalCYUL / YUL | 33,000 ft | 463 kt | 142 nmNE of the field |
| UPS1481A306 · N124UP | LouisvilleKSDF / SDF | 23,000 ft | 454 kt | 186 nmSSW of the field |
| EDV5169CRJ7 · N355CA | HarrisburgKMDT / MDT | 8,825 ft | 299 kt | 277 nmESE of the field |
| SKW3988CRJ9 · N831SK | DullesKIAD / IAD | 12,350 ft | 349 kt | 286 nmSE of the field |
| DAL2989A320 · N375NC | HartfordKBDL / BDL | 31,175 ft | 510 kt | 320 nmE of the field |
| FFT4671N653FR | PhoenixKPHX / PHX | 37,975 ft | 453 kt | 324 nmW of the field |
| DAL1689A319 · N368NB | SyracuseKSYR / SYR | on the ground | 12 kt | 325 nmENE of the field |
| EDV4679CRJ7 · N390CA | RichmondKRIC / RIC | 20,100 ft | 423 kt | 339 nmSE of the field |
| DAL292A332 · N851NW | DublinEIDW / DUB | 35,000 ft | 511 kt | 385 nmENE of the field |
| DAL2126N961DZ | NashvilleKBNA / BNA | 675 ft | 129 kt | 399 nmSSW of the field |
About Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County
- ICAO codeKDTW
- IATA codeDTW
- ServesDetroit
- RegionMichigan, United States
- Coordinates42.214°N, 83.354°W
Detroit Metropolitan sits southwest of the city on flat ground, with the Canadian border only a short distance away. That border is invisible on the ground and very visible in the data: traffic here crosses between two countries' air traffic systems constantly, and the aircraft registrations reflect it. Lake Erie and Lake St Clair frame the area to the east.
Lake-effect weather in late autumn is worth watching for. Bands of snow set up over the lakes and drift inland, and the arrival flow works around them in ways that look arbitrary until you turn the radar layer on.
What the codes mean
Airports carry two identifiers and they are not interchangeable.
DTW 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.
KDTW 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 Detroit 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:
