When your flight is delayed and you ’re stuck sitting in your seat on therunway , you may not get as many updates as you want from your pilot about what ’s go on . But there ’s another means to get the details on your flying condition : AsThrillistalerts us , there is an audio feed that allows you to listen in on the air traffic control transmission channel almost in real clock time , while you ’re still on the plane . ( assume you ’re allowed to use your cellular data / plane Wi - Fi , that is . )
LiveATC provide audio stream of air traffic control radio feeds for 1200 drome across the world . ( Some countries proscribe streaming this audio , so not every airdrome ’s feed is available . ) Through the app , you could either retrieve a nearby airport — the one you ’re already pose at , perhaps — or shop all the feed to chequer out what ’s going on at an airdrome 100 of mile away . You just take to know the ICAOairport code(which is more or less different from the more placeable three - letterabbreviationthat come along on tickets and luggage ticket , like LAX or JFK ) , or you could pick an airport out from the interactiveworld map .
you may ordinarily choose between several dissimilar feed total from unlike column across the airdrome , picking between arrival and departure , north and south towers , and various other options , depending on the airport ’s setup . For the uninitiate , it might be unmanageable to figure out what ’s going on in the feed — pilots and controllers utter firm anduse terminologythat the average traveler probably is n’t intimate with — but it ’s nonetheless a captivating coup d’oeil at what ’s going on behind the scenes while you ’re pose there dreaming of that upcoming in - flight of stairs drink servicing .
you could listen for complimentary online atLiveATC.net , or download the app for $ 3.99 foriOSorAndroid .
[ h / tThrillist ]
