FlightInfoStatus for QTR8272 at 4th Sep 2018, returning wrong/incoherent data

FlightAware AeroAPI
1

Hi,

I’m querying this flight: https://flightxml.flightaware.com/json/FlightXML3/FlightInfoStatus?ident=QTR8272&howMany=15&include_ex_data=false

Returning this data:
(…)

               {
                "ident": "QTR8272",
                "faFlightID": "QTR8272-1536071166-ed-0019",
                "airline": "QTR",
                "airline_iata": "QR",
                "flightnumber": "8272",
                "tailnumber": "A7-BFD",
                "type": "Form_Airline",
                "blocked": false,
                "diverted": false,
                "cancelled": false,
                "origin": {
                    "code": "LEZG",
                    "city": "Zaragoza / Aragon",
                    "alternate_ident": "ZAZ",
                    "airport_name": "Zaragoza"
                },
                "destination": {
                    "code": "OTHH",
                    "city": "Doha",
                    "alternate_ident": "DOH",
                    "airport_name": "Hamad Int'l"
                },
                "distance_filed": 3187,
                "filed_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536094169,
                    "tz": "CEST",
                    "dow": "Tuesday",
                    "time": "22:49",
                    "date": "09/04/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536101369
                },
                "estimated_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536094169,
                    "tz": "CEST",
                    "dow": "Tuesday",
                    "time": "22:49",
                    "date": "09/04/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536101369
                },
                "actual_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536094169,
                    "tz": "CEST",
                    "dow": "Tuesday",
                    "time": "22:49",
                    "date": "09/04/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536101369
                },
                "departure_delay": 0,
                "filed_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "estimated_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536115870,
                    "tz": "+03",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "05:51",
                    "date": "09/05/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536126670
                },
                "actual_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536094169,
                    "tz": "+03",
                    "dow": "Tuesday",
                    "time": "23:49",
                    "date": "09/04/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536104969
                },
                "status": "result unknown",
                "progress_percent": 100,
                "adhoc": false
            },
            {
                "ident": "QTR8272",
                "faFlightID": "QTR8272-1535865975-airline-0096",
                "airline": "QTR",
                "airline_iata": "QR",
                "flightnumber": "8272",
                "type": "Form_Airline",
                "blocked": false,
                "diverted": false,
                "cancelled": true,
                "origin": {
                    "code": "LEZG",
                    "city": "Zaragoza / Aragon",
                    "alternate_ident": "ZAZ",
                    "airport_name": "Zaragoza"
                },
                "destination": {
                    "code": "OTHH",
                    "city": "Doha",
                    "alternate_ident": "DOH",
                    "airport_name": "Hamad Int'l"
                },
                "filed_ete": 23400,
                "filed_airspeed_kts": 427,
                "distance_filed": 3187,
                "filed_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536068700,
                    "tz": "CEST",
                    "dow": "Tuesday",
                    "time": "15:45",
                    "date": "09/04/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536075900
                },
                "estimated_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536068700,
                    "tz": "CEST",
                    "dow": "Tuesday",
                    "time": "15:45",
                    "date": "09/04/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536075900
                },
                "actual_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": -1,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Thursday",
                    "time": "00:59",
                    "date": "01/01/1970",
                    "localtime": 3599
                },
                "departure_delay": -1536068701,
                "filed_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536092100,
                    "tz": "+03",
                    "dow": "Tuesday",
                    "time": "23:15",
                    "date": "09/04/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536102900
                },
                "estimated_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": -1,
                    "tz": "+04",
                    "dow": "Thursday",
                    "time": "03:59",
                    "date": "01/01/1970",
                    "localtime": 14399
                },
                "actual_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": -1,
                    "tz": "+04",
                    "dow": "Thursday",
                    "time": "03:59",
                    "date": "01/01/1970",
                    "localtime": 14399
                },
                "arrival_delay": -1536092101,
                "status": "result unknown",
                "progress_percent": 100,
                "aircrafttype": "A332",
                "full_aircrafttype": "A332",
                "adhoc": false
            },
            {
                "ident": "QTR8272",
                "faFlightID": "QTR8272-1536116497-airline-0199",
                "airline": "QTR",
                "airline_iata": "QR",
                "flightnumber": "8272",
                "tailnumber": "A7-BFD",
                "type": "Form_Airline",
                "blocked": false,
                "diverted": false,
                "cancelled": false,
                "origin": {
                    "code": "LEZG",
                    "city": "Zaragoza / Aragon",
                    "alternate_ident": "ZAZ",
                    "airport_name": "Zaragoza"
                },
                "destination": {
                    "code": "OTHH",
                    "city": "Doha",
                    "alternate_ident": "DOH",
                    "airport_name": "Hamad Int'l"
                },
                "filed_ete": 21660,
                "filed_airspeed_kts": 461,
                "distance_filed": 3187,
                "filed_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536068700,
                    "tz": "CEST",
                    "dow": "Tuesday",
                    "time": "15:45",
                    "date": "09/04/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536075900
                },
                "estimated_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536094140,
                    "tz": "CEST",
                    "dow": "Tuesday",
                    "time": "22:49",
                    "date": "09/04/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536101340
                },
                "actual_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536094140,
                    "tz": "CEST",
                    "dow": "Tuesday",
                    "time": "22:49",
                    "date": "09/04/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536101340
                },
                "departure_delay": 25440,
                "filed_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536090360,
                    "tz": "+03",
                    "dow": "Tuesday",
                    "time": "22:46",
                    "date": "09/04/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536101160
                },
                "estimated_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536115800,
                    "tz": "+03",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "05:50",
                    "date": "09/05/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536126600
                },
                "actual_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1536115800,
                    "tz": "+03",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "05:50",
                    "date": "09/05/2018",
                    "localtime": 1536126600
                },
                "arrival_delay": 25440,
                "status": "Arrived / Gate Arrival",
                "progress_percent": 100,
                "aircrafttype": "A332",
                "full_aircrafttype": "A332",
                "adhoc": false
            }

(…)

As you can see, there are 3 results for 4th Sep 2018.
Chronologically (from most recent to oldest record) we have:

  • QTR8272-1536071166-ed-0019 → result unknown
  • QTR8272-1535865975-airline-0096 → result unknown, but marked as cancelled
  • QTR8272-1536116497-airline-0199 → Arrived / Gate Arrival

Why this happened? This seems a bug from your side.
I don’t know how to treat informatically/programmatically this data, that seems wrong/incoherent.
This flight occurred from our records.

More information. From your site, we have 2 records for that day, with no clear information from what happened. Another question: should the API return the same records as you show in your site?

QRT8272
QRT82721415×1641 806 KB

Is this bug related with the one I reported in this ticket? FlightXML3/FlightInfoStatus for IBE6403 not returning accurate data (incompleted) , but in this case the flight was marked somehow as cancelled…

Can you please improve the reliability of the data you return from both sides and the coherence?

Thanks.

2

The first link ( https://flightxml.flightaware.com/json/FlightXML3/FlightInfoStatus?ident=QTR8272&howMany=15&include_ex_data=false) needs login. Possibly not another person’s because it bounced when I tried to login with the FA credentials. I guess it’s the author’s or maybe another account with flightxml. Kindly explain which is which.

3

:confused:
Are you a Flightaware Staff?
Did you understand my question?
This is nothing to do with login…
I was clear in my question. I’m asking about the quality of the information that is returned, since I’m using this API, I need to treat correctly the information returned.

4

Hello,

This is the result of a very large delay that was not handled well from the flight filing standpoint. The airline-0096 represents what was the originally scheduled flight. Instead the airline filed a flight with the times seen in ed-0019 and made no reference to their original schedule. This caused us to generate a new flight with no delay information and cancel the old one since no departure information was received for it in a timely manner. At gate arrival the OOOI information was sent using the old, cancelled, schedule reference. Since it didn’t match the actuall flown schedule and there’s no un-cancelling a flight several hours after the fact it resulted in airline-0199.

5

So… how can I treat the information obtained programatically? I’ve obtained and displayed wrong information in my application. Do you consider this a bug, not related with you, but related with the airline itself (QATAR Airways), who are responsible to fill and transmit correct information?

6

@dogrock can you help on this?
How can we treat these kind of situations progamatically? Cause we don’t want to display wrong data to the users… You say it’s not a problem of yours, but a mistake made by someone at QATAR responsible to transmit the information?
Thanks.

7

If the original flight plan is cancelled due to an unusually long delay it may be possible to keep searching for the same flight number to see if it’s re-scheduled and replace this information in the app’s display. However, once a cancellation has been issued there’s no garuntee that it will be re-scheduled as the same flight or even in the same day. If you need accurate historical data then selecting the flight that contains actual arrival times would take preference.

8

Hi @dogrock. I’ll assume these type of situations are rare and that was a problem regarding filling standpoint. Thanks for support.