300,000 Track US Military Plane Ahead of Reported Pelosi Taiwan Visit

More than 320,000 people were tracking a U.S. military aircraft believed to be ferrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to Taiwan Tuesday morning.

There were rumors that Pelosi was aboard a U.S. Air Force aircraft, SPAR19, which flew out of Malaysia Tuesday with no listed destination. The destination of the aircraft was updated to Taipei as it passed the Philippines.

There is no confirmation that Pelosi is aboard, and it is possible that the aircraft is a decoy. Pelosi is not expected to arrive in Taiwan until Tuesday night local time, according to Taiwanese media.

Nevertheless, the plane caught the imagination of anxious China-watchers. Flightradar24, a popular aircraft-tracking website, announced that the “unprecedented” interest in the aircraft caused a strain on its servers, temporarily making the website unavailable.

Because of unprecedented sustained tracking interest in SPAR19, Flightradar24 services are under extremely heavy load. Some users may currently experience issues accessing the site, our teams are working on restoring full functionality to all users as quickly as possible. pic.twitter.com/dsFrlQ67zr

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) August 2, 2022

The speculation follows White House acknowledgement Monday that Pelosi was using a military aircraft to travel on her tour of southeast Asia.

“It is commonplace for the Speaker to travel aboard a U.S. military transport aircraft,” said White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby during a press briefing on Aug. 1. “That’s very typical.”

“Part of our responsibility is to make sure that she can travel safely and securely and I can assure you that she will.”

It is normal for sitting members of Congress to visit Taipei, and such has happened multiple times this year. The last time a sitting Speaker visited Taiwan, however, was in 1997.

The reported trip has been turned into something of a war drum for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),