Possible Error in Bogota, Colombia tracking

FlightAware General
1

I’m watching my wife who’s on her way to visit me at my deployment in Bogota, Colombia. I’m looking at the statistics for DL 443 and notice that although the predicted arrival time is 0140Z, the average for the last 7 days was 2205Z.

Since the flight is scheduled to takeoff at 2115Z, that means the average flight time is 1:20 or less from ATL to BOG! (I know 2205-2215 is less than an hour, but it looks like the average arrival time is wrong too).

Obviously it’s an error in the UTC conversion. I looked at DL 444 back to ATL, and it seems to correctly report the takeoff time at or around 1440Z.

It’s not a huge deal because I know when it’s expected, but why the error?

2

Flightaware is only accurate within US airspace. It may track outside but I wouldn’t expect it to be accurate. A flight heading from ATL to Bogota might only track to the point it drops out of FAA tracking. The inbound flight might track more accurately back to ATL.

3

I know it’s not accurate but in this case it seems there’s a mistake in however the data is being input. The arrival data is coming from somewhere, but instead of being in COT (currently same as CDT) or UTC, it’s somewhere in between. I wonder if it’s a site-wide problem or just with this particular flight. Not a big deal either way, I just thought I’d point it out.

4

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL443/history/20100512/2115Z/KATL/SKBO

I think those flights are tracking out to the point they drop out of FAA tracking. So that is the time that is showing. On the return flight, the FAA probably gets a departure notice then tracks the flight inbound so the duration time shown is more accurate.

5

I hadn’t considered that possibility. Now I wish I remember when it stopped updating so I could see if it matched the time posted as the arrival.

EDIT: Based on the graph at the bottom, it looks like the flight stopped updating just before 7pm EDT. So an arrival time of around 2250 UTC would validate your thinking wazzu90 and it would generally match the arrival times shown for previous flights. Mystery solved.