FedEx 9017

Just saw this FedEx DC 10 flightaware.com/live/flight/FDX9017 come right over my house. At the time it, according to the track it said 14000 ft, but it looked lower. Is this a diversion or a test run to try out some new mx work? Thanks for the info.

HC

Don’t forget the tracking info is 5-10 minutes delayed. The airplane might have been quite a bit lower than the track showed at that very moment. No way of knowing unless you can pinpoint the exact location of your house on the map and crosscheck it with the position reports from the tracklog.

The 9XXX flight number more than likely indicates a maintenance flight. Must have been a great sight to see!

Notice that @ 5:40 the aircraft begins a gentle descent that drops suddenly to 14000 were it “stays” for 32 minutes before “plunging” to 8000. I would say ATC assigned them 14000 during approach and, as is seen often, the actual Alt data went missing and was replaced with the assigned alt.

The aircraft could very well have been below 14000 when you saw it.