The flight of Queen Elizabeth II’s casket from Edinburgh, Scotland, to her final resting place in London has become the most-tracked flight in history.
The queen’s coffin was carried in processions around Scotland, where the queen died at the age of 96 last week. She was then flown from the country’s capital to London on Tuesday, drawing in a record 5 million-plus viewers.
“The Royal Air Force flight carrying Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin from Edinburgh to RAF Northolt near London set an all-time flight tracking record on Flightradar24 with 5 million people following along. 4.79 million people viewed the flight across Flightradar24 web and mobile app services and a further 296,000 followed the flight via YouTube live stream,” the flight-tracking service Flightradar24 said in a blog post.
TRUMP PAYS TRIBUTE TO ‘INDISPENSABLE’ QUEEN ELIZABETH II IN DAILY MAIL OP-ED
“In total we processed 76.2 million requests related to this flight alone — that’s any action by a user, like clicking on the flight icon, clicking on the aircraft information in the left side box, or adjusting settings,” it added.
The new record beats the one set just last month: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) controversial flight to Taiwan on Aug. 4. Even though Pelosi’s flight nearly crashed Flightradar24’s servers, according to another blog post from the service, it recorded 2.92 million total viewers. The newest record blew past this number, resulting in similar problems.
“Within the first minute of the aircraft’s transponder activating, 6 million people attempted to click on the flight carrying the Queen. That put unprecedented strain on the Flightradar24 platform, far beyond even what we experienced when the US Speaker of House flew to Taiwan,” the service said. “Even though our platform suffered under such heavy load, Queen Elizabeth II’s final flight from Edinburgh to RAF Northolt, is by far the all-time most tracked flight on Flightradar24 and will likely remain at the top for a long while.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The queen’s funeral will be held on Sept. 19 at Westminister Abbey, the same location as her 1947 wedding and 1953 coronation, according to People magazine. She will be laid to rest next to Prince Phillip, her husband of 73 years.
