Something has to be happening so that the plan for Thursday of thousands of Spaniards is to follow a private Abu Dhabi-Vigo flight on Flightradar throughout the afternoon. It is not just any plane that crosses the skies on this scorching hot day. It is the aircraft that transports King Emeritus Juan Carlos I back to our country, almost two years after his departure. A visit that will have as its first stop Sanxenxo, Pontevedra And later, Juan Carlos will meet with the current King of Spain Felipe VI in La Zarzuela. An appointment expected by many Spaniards.
The curious thing about all this is that more than 6,000 people have flocked to the app flight tracking to follow the journey of the king emeritus in real time, as if it were a movie. And it’s exciting.
The Flightradar24 application gives a real-time view of world air traffic, and allows you to follow specific flights. Specifically, the flight of the emeritus king, with identifier BFY747R, is being carried out in the private aircraft Gulfstream G450, and according to the flight data, he left Abu Dhabi around 11:15 (Spanish peninsular time) and is expected to land in Vigo about 19 in the afternoon.
How does it work? It is very simple. This website not only shows the real-time route of world air traffic, but also provides information on the position, altitude, heading and estimated takeoff and flight times of the aircraft being followed. This information comes from the ADS-B transponder or Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast with GPS that transmits a signal that includes flight data.
🔴World top 1 on Flightradar, 6000 people following the flight of the king emeritus. pic.twitter.com/jVo15b89m4
– Aeronoticiasvgo (@AeronoticiasVgo) May 19, 2022
Is about a mandatory surveillance system on all aircraft of US and European airspace since 2020. At Magnet we have talked about other occasions in which thousands of people have gathered to follow certain flights of politicians or millionaires, such as when some Russian oligarchs fled Russia or a young man tried to blackmail Elon Musk to stop publishing the location of his jet in exchange for money.
The return of the king emeritus is for many reasons a long-awaited event. To understand why you have to go back in time. In June 2018, the president evicted Mariano Rajoy with a motion of censure. The following month, various media published the famous corinne tapesin which the ex-lover of Juan Carlos confessed that the Emeritus used her as a figurehead: “Not because he loved me very much, but because I live in Monaco.”
Since then, and going through other scandals that have happened. Among them, the revelations that the former Head of State had ordered in Zarzuela “to create a structure” to hide money in Switzerland, Saudi king’s $100 million gift, the lawsuit for harassment filed by Corinna in London or the successive tax adjustments of last year. And Sánchez has insisted on propping up the Monarchy and promoting a “renewal” of the institution, hand in hand with the Royal House.
That’s why, after so much scandal, it was “convenient” that on August 3, 2020 the Emeritus left Spain. And so it was agreed between Moncloa and Zarzuela, although it was never officially communicated in this way. The Government insists that “as a private citizen and without accounts with the Justice, he has every right to do what he considers appropriate.” Despite this, the truth is that Moncloa has transmitted his opinion to Zarzuela: it is preferable that the King’s father remains outside from Spain. At least for now, keep living abroad.
Among other things, because the position of the Executive is the same and that of Juan Carlos as well. “The Government has not changed a millimeter since the president expressed himself”. And what did Pedro Sánchez say then? That the Spaniards “deserve an explanation from the previous Head of State”… and this “has not yet been produced”.
Image: Flightradar24