AS Kwasi Kwarteng flew home to the UK to meet his fate, his flight was the most tracked in the world. Have you been joining in with the tracking trend?

 

What is it?

It is a service that on the face of it, may seem suited to aviation enthusiasts alone, but Flightradar24 is surging in popularity with all walks of life, allowing thousands of flights worldwide to be followed by providing observers with real-time information, the chance to track flights on a global map and also offering detailed data such as the plane’s origin, destination, type of aircraft, altitudes and speed and even a photograph of the plane itself.

 

It sounds…

…a bit geeky? Founded in 2006 by two Swedish aviation enthusiasts in its earliest form, it is now available to all on the web or on an app and it certainly draws interest - and contributions - from aviation geeks, but now it is opening up to a wider audience.

 

How so?

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her coffin was transported by the Royal Air Force on a flight from Edinburgh to RAF Northolt and the emotions surrounding what was essentially the Queen’s final farewell to Scotland and return to London drew global interest, with the number of users setting an all-time flight tracking record, with 4.79 million viewing the flight across Flightradar24 web and mobile app services and a further 296,000 followed the flight via YouTube live stream. In the first minute of the plane’s transponder activating, 6 million people tried to click on the flight.

 

That’s quite a record?

Flightradar24 said: “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. 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.”


After that?

Pilot Amal Larhlid, an ambassador for Hospice UK, paid tribute with a fundraising effort that saw her create the world’s largest portrait of the Queen in the sky via a two hour flight, covering 413 kilometres, to outline a portrait 105 km tall and 63 km wide, northwest of London.

 

Kwasi?

He returned from Washington Dulles airport to Heathrow on Thursday to see the end of his fleeting tenure as Chancellor, with the flight becoming the most tracked, as 50,000 users followed it at any one time and news helicopters broadcast its descent.

 

The service is recording history?

Last month, the service recorded massive numbers of Russians scrambling to find one-way flights out of the country after President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation of reservists.

 

And now more are tuning in?

Many non aviation enthusiast users are entranced by the movement of around 180,000 flights a day, from 1200 airlines, flying to or from more than 4000 airports worldwide, in what looks like bees buzzing around a hive.

 

Where does the information come from?

The site combines data from several sources, including flight status information, transponder and satellite information and airport data. It also offers interested and able parties the chance to increase flight tracking coverage in local areas by applying to host their own receivers.