Just over 5 million people watched Queen Elizabeth’s final flight on Tuesday, as the journey carrying the late monarch’s body from Edinburgh to London became the most watched flight in history.
Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 said a total of 4.79 million people watched the flight live online, with another quarter of a million watching on its YouTube channel.
The company said an unprecedented 6 million people tried to follow the flight within the first minute after the Boeing C17A Globemaster set off a transponder at Edinburgh Airport, affecting the stability of the platform.
“Seventy years after her first flight as Queen aboard the BOAC Argonaut ‘Atalanta’, Queen Elizabeth II’s last flight was the most tracked flight in Flightradar24’s history,” Flightradar24’s director of communications said in an email.
Elizabeth, the longest-reigning British monarch, died on September 8 in Balmoral, Scotland.
Her funeral will take place on September 19.
Flightradar24 said the flight more than doubled the previous record of 2.2 million when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flew on a controversial visit to Taiwan in August.
