Watching an Airframe or a Squawk

Summary: Getting an alert the next time one particular aircraft is seen, whatever callsign it uses, or when any aircraft sets a squawk code you care about.

A watchlist search (see Searching for a Specific Aircraft) matches words. Watch is for when you want one exact airframe, or one transponder code.

Watching an Airframe

Open the aircraft’s panel and press Watch. From then on you are alerted the next time that airframe is seen, whatever callsign it is using and with the map closed. Military aircraft change callsign from sortie to sortie, so this follows the aircraft itself rather than a name.

• You can watch up to 20 airframes in each of your two profiles. They are saved with your settings, so they are the same on every device.
• Pressing Watch switches push alerts on for the profile if they were off. The line under the button tells you where you stand: that the alert will come, or that notifications are blocked for the site in this browser (allow them from the padlock in the address bar), or that this browser cannot receive push at all, in which case the alert still reaches your other devices that have Enable Push on.
• One sortie is one alert: after alerting, a watched airframe stays quiet for four hours.
• Your watched airframes are listed under Watch Aircraft in the Live Flights panel. Click one to show it on the map if it is flying, or remove it there. Pressing the button again in the panel (Stop watching this airframe) does the same.

Watching a Squawk

Under Watch Squawk in the Live Flights panel, type a four-digit code (each digit 0 to 7) and add it. You are alerted when any aircraft sets that code, and the alert names it: Squawk 1145: GAF239.

• Up to five codes in each profile.
• A code alerts once in four hours for each aircraft.
• The everyday codes carried by many aircraft at once — 7000, 2000, 1200, 1000 and 0000 — can’t be watched, and the emergency codes (7500, 7600, 7700) are already covered by Emergency Alert (see Emergency Squawk Alerts).

When the Alert Arrives

Clicking the notification opens the map on that aircraft. If the map is already open in front of you, the alert appears as a small notice with a Show button instead. Every alert you were sent is also kept for two weeks in The Alert Inbox, so a notification you dismissed or missed isn’t lost.

Push alerts cover the UK area, as for zones and airfields.