503 Errors

FlightAware AeroAPI
1

503 errors seem very common. I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong when calling the API or what. But the request normally takes about 60 seconds or so, then I get a 503 error with the title set to “FlightAware is temporarily unavailable”. Most of the time making the request again, works perfectly and I get a response MUCH faster.

Any ideas why this would be occurring? I have considered lowering my timeout considerably and retrying more frequently to speed things up, but I figure that is a bad idea since obviously there is some larger problem here.

Also, am I being charged for these requests that result in an error like this?

2

There should be no billable queries generated in this scenario.

Was there a specific timeframe or query for when you were observing these results?

3

It happens pretty consistently on a lot of different queries.

The one log I saved from this happened at Mon, 27 May 2019 03:40:12 GMT.

4

@dogrock Continues to happen. Here are the details from the latest request that failed:

URL: https://flightxml.flightaware.com/json/FlightXML2/AirlineInfo?airlineCode=UAL
Date: Fri, 31 May 2019 00:08:04 GMT
Status Code: 503

5

@dogrock I also just got an error while trying to load flightaware.com. This happened right after I got another 503 error.

The Error ID is 131158767. And another Error ID is 131159105.

6

Are you still seeing error ID’s being thrown at the website after seeing a 503 in XML? I’m not seeing the same errors being logged related to your account during these times. Also, do you happen to be connecting through a proxy service of some kind?

7

I’ve only ever gotten an error on the website once when loading the website in my web browser. So that seems like a one off thing maybe. I still get errors through FlightXML very often sadly.

I haven’t been posting all the timestamps because of how often the errors occur.

I’m sure at some point I’ve connected through a proxy service and tried to make a request through a VPN during development. But now that I have a staging environment, I’m making a lot of requests from AWS that aren’t through any proxy.

What other information can I provide to you to help debug this further?

The error on Mon, 27 May 2019 03:40:12 GMT didn’t have any error ID’s it doesn’t look like. Other than just returning the status code 503, with a bunch of HTML for the body, the title being “FlightAware is temporarily unavailable”. That error I keep referencing because I saved my error log to a handy text file on my computer. A lot of the errors I’m discarding since they are all identical in terms of the response I’m getting back.

8

Still happening. Below I have attached a log of the error from my server.

I have obviously changed some minor details (ex. password, etc.) to protect my account.

Hopefully this helps debug further.

{ message: 'Request failed with status code 503',
  status: 503,
  statusText: 'Service Temporarily Unavailable',
  headers:
   { server: 'nginx/1.14.1',
     date: 'Sun, 07 Jul 2019 21:52:46 GMT',
     'content-type': 'text/html',
     'content-length': '4178',
     connection: 'close' },
  config:
   { url: 'https://flightxml.flightaware.com/json/FlightXML2/Search',
     method: 'get',
     params: { query: '-airline JBA' },
     data: '{}',
     headers:
      { Accept: 'application/json, text/plain, */*',
        'Content-Type': 'application/json;charset=utf-8',
        'User-Agent': 'axios/0.19.0',
        'Content-Length': 2 },
     auth:
      { username: 'USERNAME',
        password: 'PASSWORD' },
     baseURL: 'https://flightxml.flightaware.com/json/FlightXML2',
     transformRequest: [ [Function: transformRequest] ],
     transformResponse: [ [Function: transformResponse] ],
     timeout: 0,
     adapter: [Function: httpAdapter],
     xsrfCookieName: 'XSRF-TOKEN',
     xsrfHeaderName: 'X-XSRF-TOKEN',
     maxContentLength: -1,
     validateStatus: [Function: validateStatus] },
  request:
   ClientRequest {
     domain: null,
     _events:
      [Object: null prototype] {
        socket: [Function],
        abort: [Function],
        aborted: [Function],
        error: [Function],
        timeout: [Function],
        prefinish: [Function: requestOnPrefinish] },
     _eventsCount: 6,
     _maxListeners: undefined,
     output: [],
     outputEncodings: [],
     outputCallbacks: [],
     outputSize: 0,
     writable: true,
     _last: true,
     chunkedEncoding: false,
     shouldKeepAlive: false,
     useChunkedEncodingByDefault: false,
     sendDate: false,
     _removedConnection: false,
     _removedContLen: false,
     _removedTE: false,
     _contentLength: null,
     _hasBody: true,
     _trailer: '',
     finished: true,
     _headerSent: true,
     socket:
      TLSSocket {
        _tlsOptions: [Object],
        _secureEstablished: true,
        _securePending: false,
        _newSessionPending: false,
        _controlReleased: true,
        _SNICallback: null,
        servername: 'flightxml.flightaware.com',
        alpnProtocol: false,
        authorized: true,
        authorizationError: null,
        encrypted: true,
        _events: [Object],
        _eventsCount: 8,
        connecting: false,
        _hadError: false,
        _handle: [TLSWrap],
        _parent: null,
        _host: 'flightxml.flightaware.com',
        _readableState: [ReadableState],
        readable: true,
        domain: null,
        _maxListeners: undefined,
        _writableState: [WritableState],
        writable: false,
        allowHalfOpen: false,
        _sockname: null,
        _pendingData: null,
        _pendingEncoding: '',
        server: undefined,
        _server: null,
        ssl: [TLSWrap],
        _requestCert: true,
        _rejectUnauthorized: true,
        parser: null,
        _httpMessage: [Circular],
        [Symbol(res)]: [TLSWrap],
        [Symbol(asyncId)]: 383,
        [Symbol(lastWriteQueueSize)]: 0,
        [Symbol(timeout)]: null,
        [Symbol(kBytesRead)]: 0,
        [Symbol(kBytesWritten)]: 0,
        [Symbol(connect-options)]: [Object] },
     connection:
      TLSSocket {
        _tlsOptions: [Object],
        _secureEstablished: true,
        _securePending: false,
        _newSessionPending: false,
        _controlReleased: true,
        _SNICallback: null,
        servername: 'flightxml.flightaware.com',
        alpnProtocol: false,
        authorized: true,
        authorizationError: null,
        encrypted: true,
        _events: [Object],
        _eventsCount: 8,
        connecting: false,
        _hadError: false,
        _handle: [TLSWrap],
        _parent: null,
        _host: 'flightxml.flightaware.com',
        _readableState: [ReadableState],
        readable: true,
        domain: null,
        _maxListeners: undefined,
        _writableState: [WritableState],
        writable: false,
        allowHalfOpen: false,
        _sockname: null,
        _pendingData: null,
        _pendingEncoding: '',
        server: undefined,
        _server: null,
        ssl: [TLSWrap],
        _requestCert: true,
        _rejectUnauthorized: true,
        parser: null,
        _httpMessage: [Circular],
        [Symbol(res)]: [TLSWrap],
        [Symbol(asyncId)]: 383,
        [Symbol(lastWriteQueueSize)]: 0,
        [Symbol(timeout)]: null,
        [Symbol(kBytesRead)]: 0,
        [Symbol(kBytesWritten)]: 0,
        [Symbol(connect-options)]: [Object] },
     _header:
      'GET /json/FlightXML2/Search?query=-airline+JBA HTTP/1.1\r\nAccept: application/json, text/plain, */*\r\nContent-Type: application/json;charset=utf-8\r\nUser-Agent: axios/0.19.0\r\nContent-Length: 2\r\nHost: flightxml.flightaware.com\r\nAuthorization: Basic TmljZSBhdHRlbXB0IGF0IHRyeWluZyB0byBzdGVhbCBteSBwYXNzd29yZCwgYmV0dGVyIGx1Y2sgbmV4dCB0aW1lLg==\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n',
     _onPendingData: [Function: noopPendingOutput],
     agent:
      Agent {
        domain: null,
        _events: [Object],
        _eventsCount: 1,
        _maxListeners: undefined,
        defaultPort: 443,
        protocol: 'https:',
        options: [Object],
        requests: {},
        sockets: [Object],
        freeSockets: {},
        keepAliveMsecs: 1000,
        keepAlive: false,
        maxSockets: Infinity,
        maxFreeSockets: 256,
        maxCachedSessions: 100,
        _sessionCache: [Object] },
     socketPath: undefined,
     timeout: undefined,
     method: 'GET',
     path: '/json/FlightXML2/Search?query=-airline+JBA',
     _ended: true,
     res:
      IncomingMessage {
        _readableState: [ReadableState],
        readable: false,
        domain: null,
        _events: [Object],
        _eventsCount: 3,
        _maxListeners: undefined,
        socket: [TLSSocket],
        connection: [TLSSocket],
        httpVersionMajor: 1,
        httpVersionMinor: 1,
        httpVersion: '1.1',
        complete: true,
        headers: [Object],
        rawHeaders: [Array],
        trailers: {},
        rawTrailers: [],
        aborted: false,
        upgrade: false,
        url: '',
        method: null,
        statusCode: 503,
        statusMessage: 'Service Temporarily Unavailable',
        client: [TLSSocket],
        _consuming: false,
        _dumped: false,
        req: [Circular],
        responseUrl:
         'https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@flightxml.flightaware.com/json/FlightXML2/Search?query=-airline+JBA',
        redirects: [] },
     aborted: undefined,
     timeoutCb: null,
     upgradeOrConnect: false,
     parser: null,
     maxHeadersCount: null,
     _redirectable:
      Writable {
        _writableState: [WritableState],
        writable: true,
        domain: null,
        _events: [Object],
        _eventsCount: 2,
        _maxListeners: undefined,
        _options: [Object],
        _redirectCount: 0,
        _redirects: [],
        _requestBodyLength: 2,
        _requestBodyBuffers: [],
        _onNativeResponse: [Function],
        _currentRequest: [Circular],
        _currentUrl:
         'https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@flightxml.flightaware.com/json/FlightXML2/Search?query=-airline+JBA' },
     [Symbol(isCorked)]: false,
     [Symbol(outHeadersKey)]:
      [Object: null prototype] {
        accept: [Array],
        'content-type': [Array],
        'user-agent': [Array],
        'content-length': [Array],
        host: [Array],
        authorization: [Array] } },
  data:
   '<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n\t<title>FlightAware is temporarily unavailable</title>\n\t<meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache" />\n\t<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="120" />\n\n\t<style>\n\t\tbody {\n\t\t\tmargin: 0;\n\t\t}\n\t\t#sitedown-container {\n\t\t\twidth: 728px;\n\t\t\tmargin: 50px auto 20px;\n\t\t\tfont-family: sans-serif, \'Sans Serif\', Arial, Helvetica;\n\t\t}\n\t\t#sitedown-logo img {\n\t\t\tpadding: 10px 25px 10px 0;\n\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t}\n\t\t#sitedown-message {\n\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\tpadding: 10px 0 10px 25px;\n\t\t\twidth: 515px;\n\t\t\tmargin-bottom: 40px;\n\t\t\tborder-left: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);\n\t\t}\n\t\t#sitedown-message h2 {\n\t\t\tfont-size: 20px;\n\t\t\tmargin: 0 0 0.5em 0;\n\t\t}\n\t\t#sitedown-message p {\n\t\t\tfont-size: 16px;\n\t\t\tmargin: 0;\n\t\t}\n\t\t#sitedown-container > iframe {\n\t\t\tmargin: 20px auto !important;\n\t\t}\n\t\t#sitedown-twitter {\n\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t}\n\t\t#sitedown-twitter iframe {\n\t\t\twidth: 100%;\n\t\t}\n\t\tfooter {\n\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\tcolor: #999;\n\t\t\tfont-size: 10px;\n\t\t}\n\t</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n\t<div style="text-align: right; font-size: 8px">doley</div>\n\t<div id="sitedown-container">\n\t\t<div id="sitedown-logo">\n\t\t\t<img src="http://e0.flightcdn.com/images/logo.png" alt="FlightAware Logo" />\n\t\t</div>\n\n\t\t<div id="sitedown-message">\n\t\t\t<h2>FlightAware is temporarily unavailable</h2>\n\t\t\t<p>We\'re working on restoring service as soon as possible. <em>Expect departure clearance shortly.</em></p>\n\t\t</div>\n\n\t\t<div style="clear: both"></div>\n\n\t\t<iframe id="sitedown-ad1"\n\t\t width="728"\n\t\t height="90"\n\t\t marginwidth="0"\n\t\t marginheight="0"\n\t\t hspace="0"\n\t\t vspace="0"\n\t\t frameborder="0"\n\t\t style="display: block; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;"\n\t\t scrolling="no">\n\t\t</iframe>\n\n\t\t<div id="sitedown-twitter">\n\t\t\t<a class="twitter-timeline" href="https://twitter.com/flightaware/lists/outage-updates" data-widget-id="332174758860963840">Follow @FlightAwareOps on Twitter</a>\n\t\t\t<script defer="defer">!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?\'http\':\'https\';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");</script>\n\t\t</div>\n\n\t\t<iframe id="sitedown-ad2"\n\t\t width="728"\n\t\t height="90"\n\t\t marginwidth="0"\n\t\t marginheight="0"\n\t\t hspace="0"\n\t\t vspace="0"\n\t\t frameborder="0"\n\t\t style="display: block; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;"\n\t\t scrolling="no">\n\t\t</iframe>\n\n\t\t<footer>\n\t\t  &copy; FlightAware\n\t\t</footer>\n\t</div>\n\t<!-- Served by: doley -->\n\n\t<script>\n\t\tvar ad_url = "//ad.doubleclick.net/adi/flight.https;sz=728x90;tile=";\n\t\tdocument.getElementById("sitedown-ad1").src = ad_url + "1;ord=" + getRandomInt(0, 10000000);\n\t\tdocument.getElementById("sitedown-ad2").src = ad_url + "2;ord=" + getRandomInt(0, 10000000);\n\n\t\tfunction getRandomInt(min, max) {\n\t\t\treturn Math.floor(Math.random() * (max - min + 1)) + min;\n\t\t}\n\t</script>\n\n\t<script>\n\tvar lazyload_scripts = [];\n\t_qoptions = { qacct: \'p-16S-sAgkGlgVs\' ,\n\tmeta: \'qc:id=cdbcd5c3aa81f214fa0d2ddd640aa65ed5c19587\' }; lazyload_scripts.push(\'https://edge.quantserve.com/quant.js\');</script>\n\t<noscript><img src=\'https://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-16S-sAgkGlgVs.gif\' style=\'display: none;\' border=\'0\' height=\'1\' width=\'1\' alt=\'\'></noscript>\n\t<script>var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push([\'_setAccount\', \'UA-498336-1\'], [\'_setVar\', \'US/en_US\'], [\'_initData\'], [\'_trackPageview\', \'/account/ga/logged_in\']); lazyload_scripts.push(\'https://stats.g.doubleclick.net/dc.js\');</script>\n\t<script>var _comscore = [{ c1: \'2\', c2: \'8950477\' }]; lazyload_scripts.push(\'https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js\');</script>\n\t<script type=\'text/javascript\' defer=\'defer\'>\n\tfunction lazyLoad() {\n\t\tfor (var x = 0; x < lazyload_scripts.length; x++) {\n\t\t\tvar el = document.createElement(\'script\'); el.type = \'text/javascript\'; el.async = true; el.src = lazyload_scripts[x];\n\t\t\tdocument.getElementsByTagName(\'head\')[0].appendChild(el);\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\tif (typeof window.addEventListener !== \'undefined\') window.addEventListener(\'load\', lazyLoad, false);\n\telse if (typeof window.attachEvent !== \'undefined\') window.attachEvent(\'onload\', lazyLoad);\n\telse lazyLoad();\n\t</script>\n</body>\n</html>\n' }
9

I think I was able to fix this. I realized I was sending an empty object as the body for a GET request. Didn’t even realize that was possible. But removing that line from my code and not ending any body seems to be working correctly now.

Might be a good idea if FlightAware fixed this on their end to handle bad input like this. cc/ @dogrock