An airplane cannot stand still in the air as it requires air flow over the wings to create lift. An airplane can be stationary over the ground if the air is moving over the ground quickly enough.

In the literal sense of "parking" in the sky, a fixed-wing airplane cannot stop mid-air. This is due to the fundamental physics of flight: an airplane generates lift through the movement of air over its wings. If the aircraft stops moving forward, the airflow ceases, lift is lost, and the plane will enter a stall and begin to fall. While certain advanced military jets like the F-35B or Harrier can hover using Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) technology, and helicopters can hover by spinning their rotors to move air while the body stays still, a standard commercial airliner must maintain a minimum "stall speed" to stay airborne. When you see a plane that looks "frozen" in the sky from the ground, it is usually an optical illusion caused by a strong headwind matching the plane's ground speed or the perspective of the observer relative to the plane's distance and slow angular movement.