About GTLA AirWatch

GTLA AirWatch is the live air-traffic dashboard for Los Angeles County and the surrounding SoCal basin. Every helicopter currently airborne over LA appears on the 3D map in real time, with FAA registration, operator identification, aircraft livery, and live flight trails sourced from ADS-B telemetry. Coverage extends from downtown Los Angeles north through the San Fernando Valley to Ventura County, east to the Inland Empire, and south through Orange County.

The map identifies aircraft from the LAPD Air Support Division, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) Aero Bureau, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) and LA County Fire (LACoFD), the California Highway Patrol (CHP), and the regional news fleets — KTLA Sky5, KNBC NewsChopper 4, KABC AIR7 HD, KCAL Sky9 / KTTV SkyFOX, and CBS News. It also tracks military aircraft including the United States Navy, US Coast Guard, and US Army helicopters that transit LA airspace, plus firefighting heavies like the CAL FIRE Firehawks, LACoFD's Coulson-operated S-61 and CH-47 Helitanker, and air-medical operators including Reach Air Medical Services.

The "Who's hovering here?" feature at gtla.live/here identifies the helicopter directly above the visitor's current location — useful when residents see or hear a helicopter overhead and want to know what it's doing. Common use cases include identifying news-helicopter coverage of breaking events, tracking police-pursuit response, monitoring wildfire firefighting operations during fire season, and following major-incident airspace activity in real time.

Live launch alerts are delivered through the GTLA AirWatch Telegram channel: instant notifications when news helicopters depart their bases, indicating that something newsworthy is unfolding somewhere in Los Angeles.