As I seem to have stirred the proverbial by daring to refer to FR24 as a source of data, I'd like to make a point or two. (i) I get the strong impression that because it is not 'official' , many 'flying' people pooh-pooh it. (ii) While FR24 may indeed not be 100% reliable, a simple check in the sky (i.e look at plane, check with FR24, see if what it says correlates with Mk I eyeball) indicates that it is pretty reliable. (iii) When there is a terrible disaster and a total absence of 'official' information, is it not sensible to at least pay heed to whatever information is available and to rapidly check it out? As as example of 'official' versus 'unofficial', yesterday I checked into LHR to wait for a delayed EY to arrive and take me to AUH (fog plus no runway lights had previously shut AUH). On duty Etihad staff at LHR had no idea where the two incomings were: I was able to accurately tell them of their ETA simply by having a dekko at FR24. "Well, you know more than I do, sir!" said the EY chap. FR24's prediction was spot on. QED