What we found
- Nine times the planes. Rowe Street in Sydenham, Sydney, had 924 planes pass within 100 metres.
- Just 300 metres south, Belmore Street had 106 over the same days.
- Not one bad day. That is nine recorded days, 8 to 24 September 2026.
- And on a bad day, 150 planes circled. On Saturday 17 January 2026 a storm hit and Sydney's sky jammed.
What happens when Sydney's sky jams?
Our reel: the day Sydney's sky jammed, Saturday 17 January 2026.
On a normal day about nine airliners circle over Sydney waiting to land. That is the typical day from March 2023 to October 2026. On Saturday 17 January 2026 a storm hit and more than 150 did. The unluckiest went round seven times, for 63 minutes.
The usual waiting spots filled up, so planes circled where they almost never do: over the Hunter Valley, near Bathurst and far out to sea. Planes over a home are an everyday thing too. Tempe, beside Sydney Airport, had 1,097 planes a week go over it in our September 2026 recording.
How we made this reel
- Every plane tells on itself. Airliners broadcast where they are every few seconds.
- We listened over Sydney. Open receiver networks picked up those signals, 8 to 24 September 2026.
- Then we counted, street by street. Every flight within 100 metres of each street, drawn on the map.
- And every loop. A plane that circles before landing draws a loop. We counted the loops over Sydney, day by day, March 2023 to October 2026.
What it means for you
- Inspect the street, not the suburb. Two homes 300 metres apart can live under very different skies.
- Listen at the right hour. A midday inspection won't tell you what 6 am sounds like.
Where to see it on Microburbs
- Aircraft noise, for any suburb. Every suburb report has an Aircraft noise row under Risks.
- Rated against the official map. It sets the suburb against the airport noise contours.
Check aircraft noise for your suburb →
Get the data
Our data service gives every suburb's hazards, aircraft noise among them, rated against each airport's noise forecast map, which the federal air traffic agency endorses. The request below is free for Bondi, one of our sample suburbs. Bondi sits clear of the flight paths, so its noise count is zero.
Try it now, free
This request gets the figures behind this reel. It is free for our sample suburbs and homes, one in each state and territory, with no sign up and no card.
curl "https://api.microburbs.com.au/v1/suburbs/Bondi/risks/property-hazard-counts" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer test"
What it sent back on 9 November 2026, in 1.1 seconds. Fields with no value for this suburb are left out here. See the whole answer (1 KB).
{
"data": {
"area_name": "Bondi",
"area_level": "suburb",
"total_properties": 7152,
"bushfire": {
"count": 0,
"pct": 0.0
},
"flood": {
"count": 0,
"pct": 0.0
},
"mine_subsidence": {
"count": 0,
"pct": 0.0
},
"contamination": {
"within_250m_count": 3187,
"within_250m_pct": 44.56,
"within_500m_count": 6012,
"within_500m_pct": 84.06,
"nearest_m": 0.3
},
"acid_sulfate": {
"any_high_count": 0,
"any_high_pct": 0.0,
"surface_high_count": 0,
"surface_high_pct": 0.0
}
}
}
See the full API docs for every request, the price of each and how to get a key for the rest of Australia.
Is my house under a flight path? Check any suburb
Aircraft noise, for any suburb. Every suburb report has an Aircraft noise row under Risks.
