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What is the purple line on the flight tracker?

A purple line on an aeronautical chart typically indicates an airway, which is a defined route through the airspace that connects two navigation aids, such as VOR (Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range) stations. Air traffic controllers use airways to route aircraft along designated paths in the sky.



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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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A note about Estimated coverage: when you see a dashed or gray line behind an aircraft, that's estimated coverage. Colored lines indicate actual positions. When an aircraft is out of coverage, we estimate based on great circle routes to destination.

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For flights that are no longer in our coverage area, we may estimate their position for up to 240 minutes. These flight tracks are shown as black dashed lines. Read more about estimated positions on Flightradar24.

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Red: When an aircraft is displayed as red that means that you are currently following that specific aircraft on the map or that an emergency squawk is on for this aircraft.

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Also if you see a grey (dotted) line of the aircraft it is an indication that the aircraft is out of coverage of the ADSB recievers and the system is then plotting the expected trajectory for that flight.

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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. Orange: The flight is estimated to be delayed or was delayed.

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However, in some aeronautical charts, a purple line can indicate a special use airspace boundary. Special use airspace refers to certain areas of airspace where activities such as military operations, air shows, or unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) operations may take plac.

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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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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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Generally, aircraft requesting that they not be displayed on Flightradar24 are military aircraft. Some military aircraft, such as various transport aircraft, are visible. How do I see only a military plane on Flightradar24? In Flightradar24, you normally cannot see military planes, they're filtered out.

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