US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday night, a move seen as a major setback to China’s geopolitical aspirations. By doing so, she becomes the highest-ranking US official to visit the self-governing island claimed by China in 25 years. As Pelosi arrived in Taiwan from Kuala Lumpur, her flight bearing registration SPAR19 became the most tracked aircraft in the world. Pelosi’s visit has increased tensions between China and the United States as Asian forces can claim Taiwan as part of their territory, be annexed by force if necessary, and assert the island’s sovereignty. Sees visits of foreign government officials as recognition.
China had warned of taking “firm and tough measures” if Pelosi continued the journey. The SPAR19 is a US Air Force jet that flew from Kuala Lumpur to Taiwan, believed to be carrying Nancy Pelosi. According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, more Internet users tracked US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s flight than any other aircraft in the website’s history.
With 708,000 people tracking the plane upon landing in Taipei, SPAR19 is Flightradar24’s most tracked live flight ever. https://t.co/RifLnVzeMP pic.twitter.com/m2OBIV9RME
— flightradar24 (@flightradar24) 2 August 2022
Nearly 300,000 users are following every step of “SPAR19,” a US Air Force-operated Boeing C-40C, according to FlightRadar24. While there was no official confirmation that Pelosi was on the plane, she had previously landed in Taiwan, confirming that she was indeed traveling in SPAR19, which landed in Taiwan at 10.44 pm.
The SPAR19 flight took off from Kuala Lumpur’s Subang Airport at around 3.40 p.m. and headed east toward the island of Borneo, turning north toward the Philippines while flying close to the Indonesian city of Manado – clear of the South China Sea.
According to data from FlightRadar24, the top 10 most tracked flights in the world were going to Taiwan. The second most tracked aircraft on Tuesday after SPAR19 was a China Airlines flight from Jakarta to Taipei with nearly 20,000 followers.
Flightradar24, a popular aircraft-tracking website, generally has several thousand users following aircraft of interest – including emergency incidents or inaugural flights. Flight Radar 24 spokesman Ian Petechnik said the US Air Force jet was one of the five most-tracked aircraft ever to the site.
Ahead of SPAR19, the top flight tracked was a commercial flight carrying Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who was traveling after being treated for a suspected poison attempt on his life.
with Reuters inputs