Aircraft normally cannot stop in mid-air to ascertain their position at leisure. Aircraft are safety-limited by the amount of fuel they can carry; a surface vehicle can usually get lost, run out of fuel, then simply await rescue. There is no in-flight rescue for most aircraft.

A standard commercial Airbus aircraft, such as the A320 or the massive A380, cannot "stop" or hover in mid-air because it is a fixed-wing aircraft that relies on forward velocity to generate lift. According to the laws of aerodynamics, air must flow over the curved surfaces of the wings at a specific minimum speed, known as the "stall speed," to create the upward force necessary to counteract gravity. If an Airbus were to physically stop its forward motion, the wings would cease to produce lift, and the aircraft would begin to fall. While advanced military jets like the Harrier or the F-35B can hover using thrust vectoring, commercial jetliners require constant thrust from their engines to maintain the airflow required for flight. In very rare conditions with extremely high headwinds, a plane's "ground speed" might approach zero while its "airspeed" remains high enough to stay aloft, creating the illusion of being stationary to an observer on the ground, but the aircraft is still moving through the air mass to survive.