Thousands of people watched the progress of Priti Patel’s flight from Nairobi as she flew back to Britain under orders from Prime Minister Theresa May.
Following the news of Ms Patel’s return, website Flightradar 24 reported on Twitter that more than 22,000 people were tracking the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner’s flight on its site, although it was not absolutely certain Ms Patel was aboard the KQA100 Kenya Airways flight to Heathrow.
Usually flights on the website are tracked by one to 200 people.
Twitter users tweeted their thoughts on the flight tracker, comparing it to watching OJ Simpson attempt to outrun police in his car in 1994, or tracking Santa around the globe on Christmas Eve.
Author and playwright Bonnie Greer tweeted: “The #BBC’s doing OJ and the white Bronco thing. #PritiPatel”.
Twitter user @Scott_Jamison wrote: “More people watched that Priti Patel flight than will be tracking Santa on that satellite thing on Christmas Eve.”
Kenya Airways confirmed the airline does not offer Wi-Fi on any of its London flights, so Ms Patel will have been unaware of the huge interest in her return to the UK.
In October 2015, 35,000 football fans watched live on Flightradar24 as Jurgen Klopp flew into Liverpool to officially join Liverpool FC as the team’s manager.