Planefilter

Aviation flight lookup — query aircraft type, equipment changes, and confidence scoring for any flight number. Use when: looking up flight aircraft, checking equipment change, querying flight data, asking what plane a flight uses. Triggers on: flight lookup, aircraft type, what plane, 查機型, 航班查詢, equipment change, plane filter, flight number, CI101, 飛機型號.

PlaneFilter — Flight Aircraft Type Lookup

Look up aircraft type, equipment changes, and confidence scoring for any flight by querying multiple aviation data sources (OpenSky, AeroDataBox, AirLabs) and merging results with weighted confidence scoring.

Prerequisites

Required

• Node.js (v18+)
• RAPIDAPI_KEY — Subscribe to AeroDataBox on RapidAPI (free Basic plan: 150 req/month)

Optional (more data sources)

• AIRLABS_KEY — Get from AirLabs (free: 150 req/month)

Commands

1. Search Flight

bash

node {baseDir}/scripts/search_flight.js --flight=CI101 [--date=2026-03-22]

Required env: RAPIDAPI_KEY Optional env: AIRLABS_KEY (adds another data source for higher confidence)

2. Health Check

bash

node {baseDir}/scripts/health_check.js

Verifies all API keys are set and reachable. Shows which data sources are available.

Output Format

search_flight.js outputs JSON to stdout:

json

{
  "flightNumber": "CI101",
  "date": "2026-03-22",
  "airline": "China Airlines",
  "origin": "NRT",
  "destination": "TPE",
  "aircraftType": "A333",
  "registration": "B-18311",
  "confidence": 0.6,
  "equipmentChange": null,
  "typeDistribution": { "A333": 1 },
  "sources": ["aerodatabox"]
}

Output Interpretation

When presenting results to the user, follow these rules:

Field	How to Interpret
confidence ≥ 0.8	High confidence — present the aircraft type directly
confidence 0.5–0.8	Medium — mention "likely" or "most probable"
confidence < 0.5	Low — warn that data is uncertain, show typeDistribution
equipmentChange not null	⚠️ Important — Highlight this! The actual aircraft differs from the scheduled one. Show from, to, and changeType (upgrade/downgrade/lateral)
typeDistribution	Shows agreement across sources. Multiple entries = sources disagree
sources empty	No data found — suggest trying a different date

Note on aircraft type codes: The script automatically normalizes model names (e.g. "Airbus A330-300" → "A333") and filters invalid typecodes. In rare cases, an unrecognized model name may pass through as-is.

How It Works

1. Parallel query — Hits OpenSky (free, no key) + AeroDataBox (RapidAPI) + AirLabs (optional) simultaneously
2. Confidence scoring — Weighted votes from each source (AeroDataBox 0.9, OpenSky 0.7, AirLabs 0.6)
3. Equipment change detection — If scheduled aircraft ≠ actual aircraft, classifies as Upgrade/Downgrade/Lateral

Troubleshooting

Error	Cause	Fix
RAPIDAPI_KEY not set	Missing env var	export RAPIDAPI_KEY=your_key or set in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
403 from AeroDataBox	Invalid or expired key	Check your RapidAPI subscription
No flight data found	Flight not in any database	Try with a different date or a major airline flight