Why are planes flying over my house today?

Planes over a street that was quiet yesterday are rarely a mystery. Airports run to a small set of rules, and nearly every change you notice from the ground comes from one of them. Start with the wind: it explains most sudden changes, and you can check it in a minute.

1. The wind has turned the runways round

Planes take off and land into the wind, because the wing needs air flowing over it and a headwind gives it that at a lower speed over the ground. When the wind swings round, the whole airport reverses. The planes that came in low over one side now come in over the other, and the take-offs swap sides too.

At Heathrow, planes land towards the west about 70% of the time by the airport's own figure, because the wind in southern England usually blows from the west. Over the last year we recorded 62% of days that were mainly westerly, 26% mainly easterly, and 12% where the direction changed during the day. It can change more than once in a day.

For a street under one approach, that is the difference between a loud day and a quiet one. Our sample report for Kew Green, 10 km from Heathrow, counts 92 loud landings a day with westerly winds and 4 loud flights a day with easterly winds. If yesterday was easterly and today is westerly, Kew gets the planes. How airports decide when to turn round is explained in why flight paths change with the wind.

2. Runway alternation: same wind, different runway

Some airports with two runways take turns with them to give the people under each approach a break. At Heathrow, on westerly days, one runway takes landings from 06:00 until 15:00 and the other from 15:00 until the last departure, and the order swaps every week. So if planes arrived over your house all morning last week, this week they may come in the afternoon and evening instead.

Heathrow publishes the schedule a year ahead, but only for westerly days. Runway alternation explained covers how it works, when it is suspended and where to find the schedule.

3. A new or changed route

If planes keep coming whatever the wind, a route may have changed. Flight paths do not move quietly: in the UK, the airport or air traffic control provider has to apply to the Civil Aviation Authority, which decides whether to approve the change under its airspace change process (CAP 1616, with a new version from 1 October 2026). Proposals are published on the CAA's airspace change portal, and temporary changes and trials also go through the CAA. London's airspace as a whole is being redesigned by the new UK Airspace Design Service, run by NATS, though no dates have been set for new Heathrow routes.

In the US, the FAA designs flight procedures and says it engages with communities on proposed airspace changes. If the change is more flights rather than a new route, see why you might get more planes than last year.

4. Holding, or being directed by air traffic control

Not every plane follows a fixed line. When the airport is busy, arriving planes wait in holding stacks, flying an oval pattern at levels 1,000 ft apart. Heathrow has four, called Bovingdon, Lambourne, Ockham and Biggin, and the lowest level in each is around 7,000 ft. See why planes circle for how stacks work.

From the stacks, there are no set routes to the runway. Controllers guide each plane onto the final approach, so the tracks vary from day to day, although Heathrow says the overall pattern has been similar for years. By day, planes may join the final straight line no lower than 2,500 ft, about 7.5 nautical miles out; at night, no lower than 3,000 ft, about 10 nautical miles out.

Take-offs follow set routes near the airport. At Heathrow each route is a corridor 3 km wide, and once a plane reaches 4,000 ft, controllers can send it off the route on a more direct heading. A plane over your house but away from the usual routes is usually above that height.

5. Delays and late-running flights

A late evening or early morning plane is often a delayed one. Heathrow schedules no flights in the middle of the night, but delays during the day push some into it. A flight that needs to leave after 23:30 because of a delay can only go with permission, and the airline has to explain why. At the other end of the night, flights scheduled for the early morning may not land before 04:30.

Delays can also break the daytime pattern. When there is severe congestion on westerly days after 07:00, Heathrow can land up to six planes an hour on the runway meant for take-offs, so a street expecting a break may still hear some landings.

6. Storms and strong winds

Planes leave their usual tracks to get round thunderstorms, and strong winds push them sideways. Heathrow lists weather avoidance and strong winds among the reasons take-offs stray from their routes, and says severe thunderstorms or heavy snow can disrupt the whole schedule. On a stormy afternoon, planes may be over areas that normally never see them, and delays can carry the traffic late into the evening.

7. Helicopters, police, military and training flights

Some aircraft have nothing to do with the airport's runways:

• Police aircraft. In England and Wales, the National Police Air Service flies for every police force, with helicopters and small planes. It flies at night when needed, higher than by day to reduce noise, and its tasks are set by local forces, some of which explain them on social media.
• Military aircraft. Military low flying in the UK can take place from the surface up to 2,000 ft above the ground in open airspace. Major towns and cities are generally avoided and there are no set flight paths. The CAA has no authority over military flying; enquiries go to the Ministry of Defence.
• Light aircraft and flying schools. Small airfields have their own traffic, including training flights that go round the same circuit again and again. If an aircraft keeps to the Rules of the Air, the CAA has no power to restrict it, and it suggests contacting the operator. UK-registered aircraft carry a registration starting with G, which you can look up in the CAA's register.

How to find out which it is today

To check a particular plane:

• The airport's own tracker. Heathrow's WebTrak shows recent flights with their heights and readings from its noise monitors, and many airports run something similar. Boston Logan's Flight Monitor shows flights around Boston with a short delay.
• A live flight tracker. These show each plane's height, route and destination from the signals it broadcasts. A plane in a straight line descending towards the airport is landing; one going round in ovals is holding.
• Our free flight map. It replays a whole day of landings and take-offs in a minute, so you can put today next to a normal day and see what changed.

If it keeps happening

If the planes keep coming and none of the reasons above fits, note the dates and times, check them on a tracker, and ask the airport's noise team which rule sent them over. Heathrow, for example, aims to reply within five working days. In the UK, complain to the airport first and to the Civil Aviation Authority if the answer does not satisfy you.