From pilots to plane spotters, anyone who's curious can look up the flight plans of small, privately-owned aircraft. These documents, filed in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), tell the aircraft's pilot, its departure airport, arrival airport, date and time of travel. Flight plans are required for IFR flight (instrument rules), and recommended for VFR flight (visual rules). If a pilot doesn't close his flight plan within a half an hour of the estimated time of arrival, a search-and-rescue operation may be launched.
If you're in an airport, locate the tail number of the aircraft you would like to track. The tail number is painted on the fuselage of the aircraft in very large letters and numbers. The numbers for civilian aircraft registered in the United States begin with the letter N.
If you cannot see the aircraft, you can look up the tail number online by the name of the owner. Enter his last name in the FAA Name Inquiry Web site. This will give you the tail number. Military and commercial airliners are not available.
Enter the aircraft's tail number in a flight-tracking Web site. There are several from which to choose. FltPlan offers both live flight tracking and historical flight tracking by tail number. Flight Aware allows you to look up flight plans by tail number, airport code or airport name. Flight Stats lets you look up the plans by flight, airport or route.
Both Flight Aware and Flight Stats will also let you see limited flight status information about commercial aircraft. This information is tracked by flight number (the same number that you would look up a flight on the departure board at the airport, i.e. AA 40). It does not include any information on the pilot.
Retrieve the flight plan. Depending on the flight-tracking Web site you choose, you may also be able to see photos of the aircraft or a map of its most recent flight.
