Ashes no crashes – Watch live online as aircraft clear from the UK’s ash-filled skies
by Mike Butcher
on April 15, 2010

In case you hadn’t heard, Iceland’s volcanoes are sending tonnes of volcanic ash towards the UK right now. Yeah, so that’s not the tech story. The tech story is that courtesy of FlightRadar24 you can watch as the skies across the UK clear of aircraft.

FlightRadar24 receives information from several ADS-B receivers in real time. This is presented as airplanes on a Google-map.

You can even click on a plane and see its path and flight status, like height.

Launched in Sweden in 2007, Flightradar24′s network of hackers and geeks who have an ADS-B receiver has grown to over 100 ADS-B receivers. They receive the information from airplanes with ADS-B and send this information to a server, which then plots it on the map. Only airplanes within the coverage area of the 100 receivers are visible.

BTW, any suggestion that Iceland, an island which helped the global financial crisis kick off by creating an unsustanable banking industry, is having its revenge on the UK, which insisted it pay back the cash, is pure satire.

UPDATE: Two hours later this is what it looked like (is that a Ryan Air Plane? it was. Probably charging for landing):

UPDATE2: Here’s an image of how planes are disappearing from the Atlantic

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  • http://www.lobstur.com Iain Haywood

    Mike I can’t imagine that there’d be scores of TC readers genuinely believing that Iceland was reaking revenge on the UK via the tried and tested “volcano method”…

  • http://casper.frontier.nl Dario Gieselaar

    We might have a more attractive view: http://casper.frontier.nl , from both Manchester and Dublin. Amsterdam as well.

  • Liam Bradey

    You want revenge, you clearly haven’t tried any of their frozen ready meals (even if they do have great round-pound value).

  • http://www.businessads.net BusinessAds

    This is a really nice site.

  • Andy

    Casper is neat. Nice to get some air peace today along the west coast of Ireland

  • andy mac

    So it takes muck in the skies to clear the skies – how ironic!

  • http://www.twitter.com/julesmorgan Jules Morgan

    That site is flat-out awesome.

  • Rich

    Has anyone or can anyone check the air quality in London. The number of people with coughs seems to have risen more than average for the time of the year….

    Please let us know if you have the means to do this.

  • http://twitter.com/mikebutcher Mike Butcher

    You can’t?

  • http://twitter.com/mikebutcher Mike Butcher

    Of course! 21 more people have coughs in London this year. Fact.

  • http://www.lobstur.com Iain Haywood

    …says he as he misspells “wreaking”. *slaps forehead* Maybe I do need a disclaimer.

  • the Icelander

    To Liam Bradey:
    that’s the store dude.

    yep we have been working on the volcano technick for centuries…..

    just now we were piste inuf to take it full metal…..

    just call your MP and tell theme to drop the Icesave crap and we will put a lid on the volcano ok…..

    p.s. the dutch are next….

    ok ok please notice the irony in my “voice”

    happy air clear day.

  • JA

    Great site…note that there are still aircraft flying overhead here in London…just fewer!

    Hmm…wonder if there are other mashups like this?, trains, satellite, shipping? Time to Google!

  • http://free-dyson.co.uk Amy

    @JA – not for much longer; I’ve just heard that every plane is going to grounded. Keep an eye on the skies!

  • Liam Bradey

    It was a poor attempt at sarcasm! Clearly a backfire there :D

  • Mike

    Darn. Looks like the site is down now.

  • Josh

    Welp, it’s a clear sunny day out here in london. I just heard two – make that three – planes fly by out the window in the last 15 minutes, and I stuck my head out the window, breathed in, and it just seems normal.

  • Conrad

    Thats because most of the ash is just slightly higher than where your nose is ;)

    Seriously though, its extremely damaging to engines of aircraft.

  • chimaera

    I just saw a 300ft rock fly past the window.

  • Conrad

    Just heard that Eurocontrol are closing Belgian Airspace and parts of German Airspace :) – Glad I’m not flying today :)

  • Sam

    An example of ash being extremely bad for aircraft engines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9

  • Duncan

    Flightradar24 is currently quite slow (it says current users =Too Many). There’s a similar view at http://www.radarvirtuel.com/

  • Liam Bradey

    The ash is at around 55,000ft, so probably won’t even be visible, let alone tangible. And yes, very damaging. The ash at that altitude, coupled with moisture in the atmosphere, can create a sort of cement, jamming planes engines. For more info, watch Discovery’s Supervolcano (must be online somewhere). Oh, and I seriously doubt there would be a rise in the number of people with a cough, unless they all happened to be extreme freefall enthusiasts!

  • http://noticiastech.com/wordpress/?p=32126 » FlightRadar24 presenta el caos por el volcán de Islandia NoticiasTech

    [...] que presenta en vivo los vuelos en Europa de aquellos aviones que tengan un receptor ADS-B muestra el efecto del volcán de Islandia en el tráfico aéreo en el Reino [...]

  • http://twitter.com/peterc Peter Cooper

    If you wish to know what being on a plane flying through volcanic ash is like, YouTube comes to the rescue: http://youtu.be/gVctfPGY3BI

  • http://www.bview.co.uk Colin Bruce

    If the ash was sulphurous then it would be “reeking” ;-)

  • Alex

    ”

    To Liam Bradey:
    that’s the store dude.

    yep we have been working on the volcano technick for centuries…..

    just now we were piste inuf to take it full metal…..

    just call your MP and tell theme to drop the Icesave crap and we will put a lid on the volcano ok…..

    p.s. the dutch are next….

    ok ok please notice the irony in my “voice”

    happy air clear day.
    ”

    Having known many guys from Iceland I can confirm this voice is exactly how they’d phrase something.

  • http://helenwhitehead.com/blog2/2010/04/15/what-twitter-taught-me-today-about-volcanos-and-planes/ Learning communities » Blog Archive » What Twitter taught me today about volcanos and planes…

    [...] reports on Ashes no crashes – Watch live online as aircraft clear from the UK’s ash-filled skies but the linked-to http://www.flightradar24.com/ website was overloaded due to all the [...]

  • igniman

    Iceland shows the middle finger to britain again! how awesome

  • http://www.tweet4gary.co.uk/ Mike Garrick

    Everyone knows this is Gordon Browns fault!!
    He sent the Icelandic government a handwritten note saying “Please send cash”. Oops! Everyones allowed one mistake :)
    Mike.

  • igniman

    like, “I’m not gonna pay your effing money back, now eat my dust “

  • http://twitter.com/jneill JN

    So what is so special about this lonely little Cessna still flying over London?? Call sign TWF63 = G-JBIS = a Cessna 550 Citation http://twitpic.com/1frbfg

  • Pete Serjeant

    I like this for two reasons, the impact of nature and how you can see this visaually, a live infographic, brilliant ! And second @the Icelander, you comment of ‘we have been working on this technique for years’ made me laugh out loud, thx

  • http://www.mryoubuy.com/uno-stormo-di-arei-per-pulire-i-cieli-dinghilterra-2/ Uno stormo di arei per pulire i cieli d’Inghilterra | Mr youbuy

    [...] | Techcrunch VN:F [1.7.2_963]please wait…Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)VN:F [1.7.2_963]Rating: 0 (from 0 votes) [...]

  • http://www.ajaxjones.com Ajax Jones

    I heard it’s actually a zombie virus outbreak and this is the first steps in a quarantine process

  • Tim Harris

    I like the fact that the Norwegian prime minister is stranded in New York – where he is running the country from… and is that an Ipad I see?

    http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/artikkel.php?artid=10000731

  • http://hilarious.byethost9.com/putting-things-in-perspective-of-the-day-as-you-may-have-heard Putting Things In Perspective of the Day: As you may have heard…

    [...] [techcrunch.] [...]

  • the Icelander

    yep we there is no C in the Icelandic alphabet.

    for the rest of you guys:

    Sorry for the flight delays, Europe. We are aiming for London, but it’s hard to be accurate when firing a volcano

  • Believer

    HAARP

  • will

    oii vey

  • James

    I got a “Kopplingen misslyckades” whatever that means

  • AdrianK

    Yes, that website got hacked/defaced earlier

  • AdrianK

    by the way, Kopplingen misslyckades means “connection failed”

  • http://www.iceland-dori.blogspot.com Dori sig

    Well ,we have more volcanos,and who is watching Gordon Brown now on TV ?

    Check out my website. i have videos of the volcano and more

  • Eric Kirkland

    You can see an animation of the UK traffic clearing in Google Earth at http://bit.ly/btqlH7

  • merkavah

    ashes to ashes dust to dust etc. u guys know the rest. Q. if u fly 30.000 ft. high do u still get this stuff,or is it in lower atmosphere only?

  • http://xtra.co.za June

    We should have three days per year moratorium on international air flights. This is to study the effect of clean skies on psychosocial behaviour as human we will go out in good sunny days more than otherwise.

  • Jean Troiano

    I love your site! I had the pleasure of visiting Iceland 7 years ago. It was one of the best experiences ever. Beautiful country, awesome landscape, great people. I wish I could afford to do it again.

  • http://www.aofs.org/2010/04/16/volcanic-ash-drifts-over-europe-monitoring-of-flight-through-ads-b/ Volcanic ash drifts over Europe – Monitoring of flight through ADS-B | Atlantic Organization for Security

    [...] Mike Butcher at Tech Crunch Europe has written a little piece about it that graphically illustrates the [...]

  • http://aviation.aqimg.com/2010/04/iceland-not-just-ice/ Iceland: Not Just Ice « Aviation

    [...] a geekmade tool showing the skies over Britain clearing of aircraft after the warning came out, the largest [...]

  • http://juegando.com/uncategorized/the-volcano-that-shut-down-europe-flickr-pics-and-youtube-vid/ The Volcano That Shut Down Europe (Flickr Pics And YouTube Vid) | Juegando

    [...] has become a curse word in Europe as the Icelandic Volcano continues to delay flights across the Atlantic. The cloud of volcanic ash is creating havoc for travelers and European [...]

  • http://vc-list.com/?p=3253 The Volcano That Shut Down Europe (Flickr Pics And YouTube Vid) | Venture Capital & Angel Investors Lists News and Jobs

    [...] has become a curse word in Europe as the Icelandic Volcano continues to delay flights across the Atlantic. The cloud of volcanic ash is creating havoc for travelers and European [...]

  • http://brettmbell.com/2010/04/18/the-volcano-that-shut-down-europe-flickr-pics-and-youtube-vid/ The Volcano That Shut Down Europe (Flickr Pics And YouTube Vid) | BrettMBell.com

    [...] has become a curse word in Europe as the Icelandic Volcano continues to delay flights across the Atlantic. The cloud of volcanic ash is creating havoc for travelers and European [...]

  • http://blog.till-westermayer.de/index.php/2010/04/18/vulkan-greift-flugverkehr-an/ till we *) . Blog » Vulkan greift Flugverkehr an!

    [...] Dinge, die zu Tage treten, die mir bisher nicht bekannt waren: Mashups des Flugverkehrs durch [...]

  • http://www.newstechx.com/watch-in-real-time-as-aircraft-avoid-ash-cloud-on-map.html Watch in Real Time as Aircraft Avoid Ash Cloud on Map
  • meeka

    This one looks so creepy, it appears it was stripped straight from the Scream Movie. Reactions:
    http://j.mp/creepy-iceland-volcano

  • meeka
  • http://www.edugeek.net/forums/links/57839-flightradar24-watch-air-traffic-over-europe-real-time.html#post524781 FlightRadar24 – Watch air traffic over Europe in real time!

    [...] This is what the map looked like back in April when the ash clouds were over the UK. Source: http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/04/15/…-filled-skies/ How does it work (More Info) Flightradar24 shows live airplane traffic from different parts [...]

  • http://www.qibug.com/2010/04/the-volcano-that-shut-down-europe-flickr-pics-and-youtube-vid/ The Volcano That Shut Down Europe (Flickr Pics And YouTube Vid) | Tech stuff center

    [...] has become a curse word in Europe as the Icelandic Volcano continues to delay flights across the Atlantic. The cloud of volcanic ash is creating havoc for travelers and European [...]

  • Anonymous
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