Pelosi’s Flight ‘Most Tracked’ Of All Time, With People Worldwide Watching

As Nancy Pelosi made the journey to Taiwan, her plane became the most tracked flight in Flightradar24’s history.

The SPAR19 flight that carried Pelosi and her team took off from Kuala Lumpur and began its momentous trek to Taiwan. People from around the world took to the tracking site to watch as she made her way to Taiwan, marking the first visit for a US House speaker there in 25 years.

The flight tracker site issued a blog post updating that the traffic on the page got so heavy it almost crashed its entire service. In order to stop that from happening, Flightradar24 limited access to only those who were subscribed and even opened a waiting room.

A total of 708,000 users followed her entire journey through the site, and a grand total of 2.9 million people checked in on her flight status at one point during the trip, seemingly out of uncertainty that she would stay true to her word to visit the island. 

After Taiwan claimed independence from China, the nation refused to acknowledge its independence. Strains between China and Taiwan have been rife over the last two decades.

Pelosi’s move to meet Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-Wen in person was an act of defiance against the Joe Biden administration, which warned her of China’s potential reaction to this decision. Still, she kept her promise and made an unplanned stop.

In a letter via The Washington Post, she stated that her intentions were to make it known to the democratic island that the US would not abandon it. President Tsai publicly met with her on television, where she thanked Pelosi for her commitment to the relationship and gave her Taiwan’s highest civil honor.

[via Bloomberg and CNN, cover image via 12019 / 10257 images/Pixabay (CC0)]