There's a website called Flightradar24.com, it shows a map of the world, and all the planes that are in the air at any give time. Some flights are real time, some are on five minute delay. I check this site everyday, more that once, I might add. I'm fascinated. I mostly keep the map zoomed in to my local airport to watch what flights are arriving, and what flights are departing. Parts of the the day there is little activity. However, some parts of the day it is quite busy, and a bunch of tiny bee like planes move quietly, slowly across my screen. Early morning is particularly busy.
If you click on one of those tiny bees, the information about it comes up on the left hand side of my monitor. It tells me the type of air craft it is, where it is coming from, or where it is going to, the altitude, etc. Some times, it simply gives a call number, for a small aircraft, like perhaps a Piper Cub. And, curiously, sometimes this simply states the flight is "BLOCKED", which sets my imagination to the hinterland. There is always, ALWAYS some kind of activity. I'm so thankful my brother-in-law put me in touch with this site. At the moment it is one of my favorites.
Anyway, occasionally, I zoom out and can see the whole United States and how many planes (yellow bees) are in the air at the same time. Oh, my gosh, the map is covered with bees. Tiny slivers of land can be seen, but mostly it is a mass of yellow. Then, I zoom out even more and there's Europe...same thing, a mass of bees, and so it goes. And when I've zoomed out as far as I can, and see the whole world, I'm agog...can there actually be that many planes...and are they actually all in the air, or approaching or departing an airport.
All I can say is I'm sure glad the atmosphere is as deep and wide as it is, otherwise there would be more than one plane missing and unaccounted for. Seriously, if you want to scare the heck out of yourself you should check out this site. Ever since 9-11 I've had no desire to fly anymore, not because I'm afraid to fly...(well, till I have started watching this site) but because, I'm old, I hate having my personal stuff rifled through, I don't like taking my shoes off in (even though it looks clean) an icky airport, and I r-e-a-l-l-y hate you don't get breakfast, lunch or dinner on your flight anymore. Phooey on an itsy-bitsy bag of nuts and an expensive soda or cocktail.
Still, I'm glad to see folks still do fly, and I imagine most of those tiny bees I see on my monitor are full of even more tiny ants, stuffed together like sardines in a can. I'm certainly glad I'm not one of them. Especially since I now know how many of them there are, in very close proximity to each other...in some instances a few thousand feet...thank you deep, deep atmosphere.
However, I can't help but wonder exactly how many near misses there are every day that we never hear about...thank goodness...otherwise there would not be all those teeny-tiny blips inching across my monitor.
Happy flying everybody, me thinks I'll keep MY feet firmly planted to the ground.
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