The plane which carried Queen Eizabeth II's coffin from Edinburgh to London on Tuesday was the world's most-tracked flight, according to Flightradar24.
The global flight tracking service said six million people attempted to click on the flight on its website within a minute as the C-17 Globemaster aircraft prepared to take off from Edinburgh Airport at just before 6pm last night, en route to RAF Northolt.
This caused "unprecedented strain", according to the company, which provides members of the public with real-time information about thousands of aircraft around the world, and caused the website to crash. Flightradar24 said it had "implemented a number of traffic calming measures" before the flight as it "expected a large influx of users", but the "immediate, massive spike was beyond what we had anticipated", according to Walesonline.
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A record five million people followed the flight to RAF Northolt, north-west London, across the company's website, app and YouTube live stream. The previous record for a flight was set last month when 2.2 million people tracked a plane carrying US politician Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
Flightradar24 said: "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."
The aircraft had the callsign 'Kittyhawk', used for any military flight with the Queen on board. The Princess Royal accompanied the coffin on the flight with her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence. Anne said she was "fortunate" to be able to share "the last 24 hours of my dearest mother's life", adding: "It has been an honour and a privilege to accompany her on her final journeys. Witnessing the love and respect shown by so many on these journeys has been both humbling and uplifting. We will all share unique memories. I offer my thanks to each and every one who share our sense of loss."
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