Radar shows plane's erratic course

Global flight tracking service Flightradar24 last night recorded up to 330,000 visitors on the page that tracks SPAR19 at the same time as Pelosi's visit has drawn worldwide attention.

The website once froze due to huge internet traffic.

The map showed flight SPAR 19 - believed to be carrying Pelosi - left Malaysia at 3.42pm.

Instead of flying northeast in the direction of Taiwan, it took an eastern course to the Philippines before eventually rounding a corner and heading north to Taiwan.

The U-shaped route meant the flight took more than eight hours to arrive in Taiwan from the North Pacific Ocean on Taiwan's east coast.

It completely avoided the South China Sea, where Beijing was said to be ratcheting up military activity before the mooted visit.

But Flightradar showed another US flight SPAR20 departed Tokyo yesterday morning and arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang at 11.52am.

As of 7pm yesterday, SPAR20 remained in Malaysia, prompting netizens to speculate whether US authorities had specifically arranged the two flights flying in and out of Malaysia within several hours as a "camouflage" to confuse China about Pelosi's whereabouts.