# Airline flight path

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-flight-path/468993>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 22, 2008, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-flight-path/468993 "2008-10-22T01:43:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-flight-path/468993/1 "2008-10-22T01:43:34Z")

</div>

Mrs. Plant flew to Long Island today. Watching on a website, I noticed that Southwest flew from Baltimore West out to sea, north east and then north to Long Island. Why didn’t they fly in a straight line East North East from Baltimore to Mac Arthur?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-flight-path/468993/2 "2008-10-22T01:52:51Z")

</div>

WAG-noise abatement?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-flight-path/468993/3 "2008-10-22T01:57:41Z")

</div>

Maybe they were avoiding the traffic over Washington and New York.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-flight-path/468993/4 "2008-10-22T01:59:52Z")

</div>

East, dammit. :rolleyes:  
East from Baltimore, over Delaware, North East grazing New Jersey and then East over the sea for a good while, then North for Long Island

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-flight-path/468993/5 "2008-10-22T03:27:11Z")

</div>

This is a duplicate thread. I’ll close it.

**Gfactor**  
General Questions Moderator