KSEA · SEA · Seattle, Washington
Planes near SEA: live flight tracking at Seattle-Tacoma International
Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA / KSEA) serves Seattle, Washington, United States. Wedged between Puget Sound and the Cascades, which decides where the traffic can go.
The live map
Aircraft the volunteer receiver network can currently hear around Seattle. 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 SEA, 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 | DAL543 | BCS3 · N323DU |
| 02:57 UTC | Departure | WJA1555 | B738 · C-GJLS |
| 02:56 UTC | Departure | SKW3298 | E75L · N408SY |
| 02:56 UTC | Arrival | VOI1850 | A320 · XA-VLO |
| 02:55 UTC | Departure | ASA354 | N804AK |
| 02:55 UTC | Arrival | DAL2880 | B738 · N378DA |
| 02:54 UTC | Departure | ASA1387 | B738 · N526AS |
| 02:54 UTC | Arrival | DAL2889 | A21N · N510DE |
| 02:53 UTC | Departure | UAL656 | B739 · N66803 |
| 02:52 UTC | Arrival | ASA3 | B738 · N537AS |
| 02:52 UTC | Arrival | SKW3688 | N326SY |
| 02:50 UTC | Arrival | DAL472 | B753 · N594NW |
Showing the most recent 12 of 40 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 SEA. 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 60
| Flight | From | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAL472B753 · N594NW | AtlantaKATL / ATL | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmS of the field |
| ASA3B738 · N537AS | WashingtonKDCA / DCA | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmN of the field |
| ASA691B39M · N920AK | Palm SpringsKPSP / PSP | on the ground | 7 kt | 0 nmSE of the field |
| DAL2889A21N · N510DE | BostonKBOS / BOS | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmN of the field |
| QXE2352E75L · N660QX | BoiseKBOI / BOI | 775 ft | 136 kt | 2 nmS of the field |
| N2113JC172 | SeattleKBFI / BFI | on the ground | 13 kt | 5 nmN of the field |
| N1976BR44 | SeattleKBFI / BFI | 400 ft | 103 kt | 9 nmN of the field |
| PAL124A359 · RP-C3508 | Manila (Pasay)RPLL / MNL | 10,075 ft | 288 kt | 10 nmNW of the field |
| QXE2308N652MK | CalgaryCYYC / YYC | 3,775 ft | 202 kt | 11 nmS of the field |
| ASA289B739 · N224AK | PhoenixKPHX / PHX | 4,950 ft | 241 kt | 14 nmSSE of the field |
| N2446XC206 | OlympiaKOLM / OLM | 2,400 ft | 94 kt | 17 nmS of the field |
| ASA1301N719AL | Los AngelesKLAX / LAX | 7,500 ft | 278 kt | 25 nmS of the field |
| ASA569B739 · N280AK | New OrleansKMSY / MSY | 11,950 ft | 288 kt | 33 nmSE of the field |
| ABX3136B763 · N1489A | StocktonKSCK / SCK | 12,275 ft | 346 kt | 43 nmSSW of the field |
| ASA322B738 · N512AS | Dallas-Fort WorthKDFW / DFW | 13,675 ft | 307 kt | 45 nmSE of the field |
| QXE2084E75L · N644QX | BillingsKBIL / BIL | 22,875 ft | 309 kt | 63 nmENE of the field |
| ASA451B739 · N237AK | New OrleansKMSY / MSY | 28,350 ft | 418 kt | 77 nmSE of the field |
| DAL714B739 · N829DN | AtlantaKATL / ATL | 30,200 ft | 417 kt | 106 nmSE of the field |
| SKW3887E75L · N299SY | VancouverCYVR / YVR | on the ground | 9 kt | 111 nmNNW of the field |
| DAL740A21N · N540DE | New YorkKJFK / JFK | 30,000 ft | 368 kt | 112 nmE of the field |
Outbound nearest 20 of 60
| Flight | To | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SKW3343E75L · N185SY | FresnoKFAT / FAT | on the ground | 8 kt | 0 nmESE of the field |
| JZA809DH8D · C-GJZH | VancouverCYVR / YVR | 350 ft | 138 kt | 0 nmSSE of the field |
| DAL2880B738 · N378DA | Las VegasKLAS / LAS | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmN of the field |
| AAL1471A21N · N453AA | MiamiKMIA / MIA | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmE of the field |
| SKW3688N326SY | BoiseKBOI / BOI | on the ground | 11 kt | 1 nmSE of the field |
| DAL2447BCS3 · N341DU | PhoenixKPHX / PHX | on the ground | 0 kt | 1 nmSE of the field |
| SKW3692E75L · N317SY | BoiseKBOI / BOI | on the ground | 10 kt | 1 nmSSE of the field |
| SKW4039N323SY | BozemanKBZN / BZN | on the ground | 10 kt | 1 nmSSE of the field |
| FDX1838MD11 · N521FE | OaklandKOAK / OAK | on the ground | 0 kt | 1 nmNNE of the field |
| SKW3884E75L · N284SY | OntarioKONT / ONT | on the ground | 0 kt | 1 nmS of the field |
| WJA1555B738 · C-GJLS | CalgaryCYYC / YYC | 1,700 ft | 196 kt | 2 nmN of the field |
| SKW3298E75L · N408SY | Salt Lake CityKSLC / SLC | 4,050 ft | 220 kt | 6 nmN of the field |
| RFS731N87FF | KRNT | 450 ft | 74 kt | 9 nmSSE of the field |
| ASA1387B738 · N526AS | Santa AnaKSNA / SNA | 9,750 ft | 250 kt | 10 nmNE of the field |
| ASA354N804AK | ReykjavíkBIKF / KEF | 6,150 ft | 278 kt | 11 nmN of the field |
| ASA202B39M · N937AK | KahuluiPHOG / OGG | 18,125 ft | 365 kt | 29 nmWSW of the field |
| DAL2442B738 · N3730B | PhoenixKPHX / PHX | 9,500 ft | 296 kt | 31 nmSSW of the field |
| SKW3932E75L · N253SY | Santa AnaKSNA / SNA | 21,450 ft | 357 kt | 32 nmSSE of the field |
| ASA310B39M · N958AK | DenverKDEN / DEN | 19,250 ft | 397 kt | 37 nmE of the field |
| SKW3433N407SY | BellinghamKBLI / BLI | 11,925 ft | 300 kt | 40 nmNNW of the field |
About Seattle-Tacoma International
- ICAO codeKSEA
- IATA codeSEA
- ServesSeattle
- RegionWashington, United States
- Coordinates47.448°N, 122.310°W
Seattle-Tacoma sits on the narrow strip of land between Puget Sound and the Cascade foothills, roughly midway between the two cities in its name. Geography is unusually assertive here: water to the west, rising ground to the east, and a north-south corridor that almost all the traffic follows. Vancouver and Portland sit at either end of that corridor, and traffic between them threads past this field constantly.
Watch for the seaplanes and light traffic over the Sound at low level. Some of it will be missing from the map entirely, because a good deal of American general aviation broadcasts on 978 MHz rather than 1090 MHz.
What the codes mean
Airports carry two identifiers and they are not interchangeable.
SEA 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.
KSEA 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 Seattle 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:
