Flight frenzy: Nancy Pelosi Taiwan trip swamps plane tracker

Once the plane landed safely on the Taipei tarmac – speculation had grown that China might take action against the jet – the mystery was no more and the curious crowd dispersed. — Courtesy of Flightradar24.com

WASHINGTON: Hundreds of thousands of people tuned in to a flight tracking website on Aug 2 anxious to find out whether US official Nancy Pelosi was in fact going to Taiwan, in defiance of China’s angry protests.

Trouble was, there were so many of them – a site record of over 708,000 – that Flightradar24 said it had to limit non-subscribers’ access in order to keep the service online.