FlightRadar24 - high traffic following invasion

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Is anyone else monitoring the air traffic on FlightRadar24? There was an 8 minute wait to get on to the website!

Lots of military aircraft.

Looks like the two Eurofighter Typhoons mentioned up thread earlier this evening will shortly be landing at Akrotiri (Cyprus).

I am watching my daughter come into Manchester from Frankfurt... seen her plane go over our house - stood in the dark outside with the AR on!

@Sassenach85

I’m new to flight radar! I was watching a us helicopter, us jet/aeroplane and Italian govt plane and the us jet has just disappeared - does this mean they have turned their radar off? They were at an airport in Poland I think

They’ve either turned their transponder off (that’s the device that sends out the data ATC/flight trackers use - not their radar), or as they got close to the airport Flight Radar lost track.

Because of the way the tracker sites work they can’t always track aircraft at very low altitude.

The fighters and tanker did the same run yesterday. Noticing a distinct lack of military planes tonight compared to the last 2 weeks so either somethings afoot or they’ve turned their signals off

Did everyone see the u tube link from sky news about the insides of some of these planes.
It's on the invasion threads I can't link.

It was exciting and also reassuring... basically it's an office in the air.
With expert's tracking left right and center.
The plane was supposed too Go back but didn't because they were in the middle of tracking action in Belarus....

We were right!

Removing diplomats.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10580973/U-S-approves-Moscow-chartered-flight-remove-expelled-Russian-diplomats-State-Dept.html

I'm amazed they let's them go?

Welcome to Russia!! Home of the imprisoned! I'm sure those diplomats Will have such a Great time back in the mother land!!!

More surprised they wanted to go!!

@FatFucker

More surprised they wanted to go!!

Oh, I suspect the not really there KGB embassy staff would have had ways of ensuring anybody not wanting to leave did in fact do so.

@ColinRobinsonsFart

I am watching my daughter come into Manchester from Frankfurt... seen her plane go over our house - stood in the dark outside with the AR on!

I watched my daughter land in Sydney three years ago…I text her before the plane had stopped on the runway 😊

Guessing this was the reason for the other squadron flight we watched going into Cancun yesterday
<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.laprensalatina.com/russian-tourists-in-mexico-face-difficulties-returning-home/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwin95TFhbH2AhWKZMAKHQt_BnwQyM8BKAB6BAgIEAI&usg=AOvVaw2weK1vEG7Vq92JQ3VagUC_" rel="nofollow" target="blank">www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.laprensalatina.com/russian-tourists-in-mexico-face-difficulties-returning-home/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwin95TFhbH2AhWKZMAKHQt_BnwQyM8BKAB6BAgIEAI&usg=AOvVaw2weK1vEG7Vq92JQ3VagUC

Thanks for the link - FWIW unless I missed it the one flight I saw going to Cancun the other day doing the very roundabout route wasn’t “Special Squadron,” (I.e. Government) it was one of Nordwind’s, which fits with the article:

“ Other tourists at the airport’s terminal 4, used by the Russian Nordwind and Azur Air airlines, said that they had come to Mexico weeks ago and had decided to go home early despite plans to visit other parts of the country, fearing a possible border closure could prevent them from going back to Russia.

“

Yes, sorry I meant the Norwind one you pointed out doing the long journey yesterday afternoon.

I was interested to see what the refuelling process actually looks like and found this on YouTube of an F16 aerial refuel

A lot going on today...

NATO refueller (Airbus) is out

Typhoons have just left Akotiri

Italian Airforce coming in from Pisa (I think this is dropping supplies as it goes back and forth)

US Airforce Hercules coming into Poland from UK Lakenheath

Thanks where's my mojo!
Isn't that amazing

[quote wheresmymojo]I was interested to see what the refuelling process actually looks like and found this on YouTube of an F16 aerial refuel

[/quote] That’s the USAF system, using a “boom”- where the receiving aircraft sits in a defined box behind/below the tanker and the boom operator on the tanker steers the end of the boom into a receptacle on the receiving aircraft.

The RAF/American Navy/many others use”probe and drogue” drought where the tanker trails a hose on the end of which is a drogue - looks like a shuttle cock. The receiver aircraft has a probe, and it’s the receiver aircrafts pilots job to get the probe lined up with the drogue and then to drive forward to make contact/take on fuel.

The Soviets used to have a really odd wing tip to wing tip system on some types not sure if that is still around.

A plane was very loud overhead. On Flightradar24 it said ‘blocked’, for destination and origin it said N/A. It was at 27,000 feet but we aren’t that near an airport. It was a big plane icon. Any ideas? Occasionally we have military transport planes flying very low so we see them in daytime so I’m thinking it could be one of those. I’m in Kent and it was heading towards Europe.

I’ve traced it back and it looks like it took off from St John’s international, Canada. It’s near Brussels now and staying at 27,000 feet.

@Notoironing

A plane was very loud overhead. On Flightradar24 it said ‘blocked’, for destination and origin it said N/A. It was at 27,000 feet but we aren’t that near an airport. It was a big plane icon. Any ideas? Occasionally we have military transport planes flying very low so we see them in daytime so I’m thinking it could be one of those. I’m in Kent and it was heading towards Europe.

How odd, it’s our old friends (see well upthread) Bank of Utah Trustee…

He’s on the ADS-B Exchange tracker as a C130J Super Hercules, American Registration N67 AU..currently just south of Brussels and heading south East

Thanks I will have a look up thread. I am curious why a plane would fly at that altitude. Probably why it was so loud.

@Notoironing

Thanks I will have a look up thread. I am curious why a plane would fly at that altitude. Probably why it was so loud.

It’s a Hercules - four engined turbo prop (hence the noise) they aren’t designed to fly as high as the airliners.

The Bank of Utah thing might be that they own the airframes and have then leased them to whoever is actually operating them. Over the years quite a few airlines have financed their fleets in this way..

Looks like it's landing at Ramstein.

The leasing thing reminded me of an article I read.

www.irishtimes.com/business/irish-aircraft-leasing-firms-face-mission-impossible-recovering-planes-from-russia-1.4814266

Who knew the top 2 leasing company were in Ireland!

I would say they have little chance of getting any of them back now.

From Wikipedia

Ramstein Air Base or Ramstein AB (IATA: RMS, ICAO: ETAR) is a United States Air Force base in Rhineland-Palatinate, a state in southwestern Germany. It serves as headquarters for the United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA) and also for NATO Allied Air Command (AIRCOM).