Missing time on position log when altitude was very low

[RHAnderson36]

United 102 SFO-ORD aborted its landing at ORD on 18 May supposedly because previously landed traffic had not cleared the runway. One passenger estimate of altitude at the time of abort was 100-200 feet. The position tracking log for that flight shows an altitude of 1,200 feet at 7:22 p.m., nothing at 7:23 p.m., and 3,800 feet at 7:24.

When there is an abnormally low altitude in a landing situation does FlightAware’s source of data block providing information or does FlightAware not post the data?

[NeedleNose]

Permalink to flight in question:
flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL1 … /KSFO/KORD

[davysims]

FAA radar does not always track all the way down to the ground, due to technical limitations. I would imagine that would affect FA’s data stream.

[mduell]

@RHAnderson36

United 102 SFO-ORD aborted its landing at ORD on 18 May supposedly because previously landed traffic had not cleared the runway. One passenger estimate of altitude at the time of abort was 100-200 feet. The position tracking log for that flight shows an altitude of 1,200 feet at 7:22 p.m., nothing at 7:23 p.m., and 3,800 feet at 7:24.

When there is an abnormally low altitude in a landing situation does FlightAware’s source of data block providing information or does FlightAware not post the data?

Sometimes radar coverage doesn’t go all the way to the surface.

Also it could have been a clock syncronization issue (positions at 23:22:59 and 23:24:00) but in this case it was not (positions at 05/18/2010 23:22:36 and 05/18/2010 23:24:36).