What does GREY mean on flight radar?

Flightradar24 Support center Each color indicates a different flight status. Below are the meanings behind these colors: Gray: The flight is scheduled and there isn't an additional status available. Green: The flight is estimated to be on time or arrived at time.



On the Flightradar24 schedule board and flight history pages in 2026, the color GREY indicates that a flight is scheduled, but no additional real-time status is currently available. This typically appears for flights that are several hours or days away, or for flights where the airline has not yet provided estimated departure or arrival updates to the tracking system. Once a flight becomes active or receives a status update, the color will change: Green indicates the flight is on time or has arrived, Orange means it is delayed, and Red signifies a delay of more than 45 minutes or a cancellation. On the live map itself, a black dotted line represents an aircraft that is outside the radar's coverage area, with its position being estimated based on its last known trajectory. Therefore, seeing a grey status is perfectly normal for upcoming trips and simply means you should check back closer to the departure time for live tracking data.

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On the map a coloured line shows the route of the aircraft. Purple colours indicate cruising altitudes. White colours indicate the plane is on the ground. As a plane takes off, the colours change from white, to yellow, to green, to light blue, to dark blue and finally to purple.

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If it is above 100 meters, the trail will be yellow, and with an increase in altitude, will be green, and so on. If the aircraft's position surpasses 2500 meters in altitude, the trail will be light blue, and will then change to dark blue, purple, and finally red for the highest possible altitude.

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The grey area there indicates that the aircraft is out of coverage ( an estimated flightpath is presented) for that part of the flight. The altutude graphic is part of the Skyaware map you have when you are feeding data towards Flightaware.

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The grey areas are the minimum descent altitude (MDA) for each approach segment. Below those altitudes there are hazards in those segments.

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Flightradar24 Support center Red: When an aircraft is displayed as red that means that you are currently following that specific aircraft on the map or that the aircraft's transponder is squawking an emergency code. These codes are 7600 (Communication Equipment Failure), and 7700 (General Emergency).

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While it may sound shocking to some, the simple fact is that some aircraft may simply not have their transponder on, or it may be temporarily off, or they may be carrying passengers or cargo, which warrant deactivation. In addition, not all airspace activity is always relayed to FlightRadar24 at all times.

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A Squawk 7700 indicates an emergency. This can be an emergency of any kind. Pilots may input it into the transponder themselves – or when instructed to do so by ATC. As a result, ground control will know that the aircraft is dealing with a serious issue and needs help.

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Hi Damaris, the blue arrow indicates your direction of view or movement.

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CODE RED is used by the flight attendants to alert fellow crew members that a passenger is experiencing cardiac arrest and to grab certain medical equipment.

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Some high profile aircraft, such as Air Force One are not displayed. Most other aircraft subject to restriction are shown as anonymized by aircraft type.

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Military aircraft in particular are exempt from many civil rules and regulations which would see most aircraft having an active transponder and of course their operational requirements will dictate they often do. That said, ultimately, any plane CAN disable it if they wish.

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What is the longest flight in the world by distance? The longest flight in the world by distance is New York (JFK) to Singapore (SIN) on Singapore Airlines clocking in at 9,537 miles. What plane can fly the farthest in the world?

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If a crew resets their transponder to the emergency code of 7700 (squawking 7700), all air traffic control facilities in the area are immediately alerted that the aircraft has an emergency situation.

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