Queen Elizabeth II: Flight carrying coffin to London most tracked plane in history

September 14, 2022 22:30

Nearly six million people tried to follow a British Royal Air Force transport aircraft taking Queen Elizabeth II's coffin from Edinburgh in Scotland to London, making it the most tracked flight in history, website Flightradar24 said on Wednesday.

The Queen's coffin was flown on a RAF Globemaster C-17 on Tuesday evening, after lying in state at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh.

The previous record was when a US military aircraft carrying US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan last month was followed by 2.2 million people on Flightradar24.

On Tuesday, nearly six million people tried to follow the British military plane's route from Edinburgh to RAF Northolt within its first minute in the air, the website said.

The huge traffic caused disruptions to the site, where users can track the path of planes in the air.

More than 4.79 million people watched on its site and app and 296,000 were watching on a YouTube stream, the BBC reported.

The flight used the callsign "Kittyhawk", used for any military flight with the Queen on board. The C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft was earlier used to take humanitarian aid and weapons to Ukraine following Russia's invasion.

Prime Minister Liz Truss and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace were among those waiting at RAF Northolt for the flight carrying the coffin of the late monarch.

Queen Elizabeth II died aged 96 at her Balmoral Castle summer residence in Scotland on September 8.

Flightradar24 said it had taken steps to make its platform as stable as possible before the plane took off. -- PTI

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