Many frequent flyers have been startled by one unsettling element in Flight Radar’s representation showing the distribution of commercial flights worldwide at the moment.
For those who need a reminder, Flight Radar is a website that tracks the location of planes in the air at any one time and provides an illustration of the activities that take place in the world’s sky.
The aerospace technology company frequently posts pictures of these maps on social media, especially when the enormous number of commercial engines happens to form a familiar shape or image.
This was the situation a few hours ago when Flight Radar posted their map on X (previously Twitter), revealing four glaring holes that made for a highly unnerving visual that many people couldn’t help but notice.
When positioned just above another hole in the Middle East, two adjacent gaps—one in Eastern Europe and the other in East Asia—seemed to resemble two eyes.
The middle parts of Africa may show a third, much wider disparity.
If you haven’t already, a lot of people think that these four blank spaces seem like a skull.
In the comments, a social media user questioned, “Anyone else see the skull face?”
Another merely updated the thread with three skull and crossbones emojis.
“Like a skull,” noted a third, whilst another suggested a similar notion: “Looks like my kids jack o lantern on November 1st.”
Reasons for the gaps on Flight Radar24 map
Ukraine
There are a number of reasons why Flight Radar’s unsettling map has such obvious gaps, but let’s start by looking at the skull’s “left eye,” which is the one nearest to the west.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, it is arguably the most visible hole.
Since a Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down in 2014 amid the armed conflict between pro-Russian rebels, many airlines have likewise avoided the eastern part of the nation.
However, all Ukrainian airspace was restricted to private aircraft after the country’s invasion three years ago.
Africa
The skull’s largely empty “mouth” section in the middle of Africa is also caused by violence, but as Flight Radar notes, the problem isn’t simply flying over conflict; it may also require landing in the middle of it.
As a result of the escalation of civil wars in the regions around Libya and Sudan, many flights steer clear of these regions. Because of this, flights over Algeria, northern Mali, northern Niger, and Chad are likewise not very common.
Middle East
Many airlines are refusing to fly over parts of the Middle East due to the ongoing violence in Gaza and Israel’s missile strike against Iran over the weekend. This is also the situation with the skull’s “nose.”
Tibet
The ‘right eye’ of the skull is another obvious gap caused by geography.
Tibet is actually the last blank area. Although the area, officially known as the Tibet Autonomous Region, is a part of the People’s Republic of China, it is notoriously difficult to reach and fly over because of its rough and tough terrain.
But it’s not because the mountains in the region are too high.
All aeroplanes have oxygen on board because they typically fly between 35 and 40,000 feet through regions of the sky with extremely little oxygen. Pilots must therefore reduce their engines to 10,000 during depressurisation occurrences in order to prevent passengers’ brains from being negatively impacted by the oxygen shortage.
The problem with Tibet, however, is that it is nearly impossible to descend to a safe altitude without hitting the earth because much of the country is already 10,000 feet above sea level.