U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's flight to Taiwan, which bolstered American support for the island nation but angered China, was the single most heavily tracked flight in the history of the online flight tracking site Flightradar24.The website, which uses a network of receivers to track planes' location and speed, said Wednesday that more than 708,000 people across the globe were tracking the flight when it landed in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei. And more than 2.9 million people tracked at least a portion of the flight amid uncertainty about whether Pelosi would follow through on her pledge to visit the island nation, whose independence is not recognized by China.Though the stop in Taiwan was not part of Pelosi's official schedule for her tour of Asia, a Taiwanese and U.S. official confirmed to CNN on Monday that she would be making the stop off. The decision came amid warnings from Biden administration officials, who raised concerns about how China would respond.Pelosi, whose visit to Taiwan was the first of its kind in 25 years, said she intended the trip to make it "unequivocally clear" that the United States would "not abandon" the democratically governed island. She was greeted by Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen, in a televised meeting. She thanked Pelosi for visiting and praised her commitment to democracy and bestowed on her Taiwan's highest civilian honor.Beijing warned that Pelosi's trip would have a "severe impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations" and responded with a series of military exercises that began on Tuesday.Pelosi traveled from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, to Taipei aboard a Boeing C-40C jet (a military version of the Boeing 737 jetliner) operated by the US Air Force, according to the flight tracker. The flight flew under the call sign "SPAR19."Flightradar24, which started as a passion project by two aviation enthusiasts, said in a blog post that traffic on its website became so intense that it nearly brought down the tracker, and it was forced to limit access to the site for non-subscribers by implementing a waiting room feature."An unprecedented, sustained interest in this particular flight led to extremely heavy load on Flightradar24 infrastructure. Our teams immediately began efforts to maintain the stability of our services. Unfortunately, due to the volume of users, it was necessary to deploy our waiting room functionality, which meters access to Flightradar24 for non-subscribers."Shortly after Pelosi's flight landed, the company was able to restore normal access for all users.

Major U.S. airlines have updated their customer service agreements following pressure from the Biden administration to step up consumer rights in the wake of a summer plagued by flight cancellations and delays.

American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, JetBlue and Southwest have all published updates to their customer service policies this week.

The policies have been rewritten in clearer language with tweaks in some cases to when passengers can receive meal and hotel vouchers if a flight is canceled or delayed.

In United's case, the airline is now offering meal vouchers for flights delayed more than three hours when the previous threshold was four hours. The changes were published online.

The airline also outlined its hotel voucher policy for unexpected overnight stays caused by something within the airline's control. If vouchers are not available for their partner hotels, the airline said customers can submit a receipt to the airline's Customer Care Team for reimbursement up to $200.

In a letter earlier this month, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had asked airlines to reexamine their customer service plans and provide meals when flights are delayed more than three hours.

"A lot of the airlines have really upped their game and I think committed to some consumer protections in writing that they hadn't previously," said Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg in an interview with CNN. "We're going to continue to work with them."

Delta Air Lines said in a statement to CNN that the airline's policies already aligned with Buttigieg's requests, but that they've updated their language to make it clearer.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian wrote back to Secretary Buttigieg outlining steps the airline has taken to mitigate cancellations.

Bastian said the airline provides "full and timely refunds to eligible passengers."

"Since the beginning of 2020 we've refunded over 11 million tickets totaling $6 billion, of which 20% has taken place in 2022," he wrote.

He also said they've hired 20,000 new employees since the beginning of 2021.

In his request to airlines, Buttigieg also asked carriers to provide hotel rooms in the event a cancellation causes passengers to need to wait overnight.

American Airlines is among those offering hotel rooms for air travelers in such situations so long as the cancellations aren't caused by something beyond the airline's control, like weather. The airline also outlines that it will cover transportation to and from the hotel.

Southwest also restricts hotel stays to cancellations beyond its control and says it'll be provided "upon request if available."

For more information, the revised policies are available here: American Airlines | Delta Air Lines | United Airlines | JetBlue | Southwest.

The moves come on the eve of the Labor Day rush and a vow from the Department of Transportation to roll out an online dashboard that more easily allows passengers to view their rights as consumers with comparative information on each airline.

Data from FlightAware shows U.S.-based air carriers have canceled more than 45,000 flights since the start of June. On Tuesday, more than 800 flights within, to, or from the United States were canceled and the FAA imposed ground stops at all three of the DC area's major airports as severe weather moved through.

The airlines continue to face pressure over how the summer went, including from 38 state attorneys general who on Wednesday sent a letter to Congress asking for more power to take legal action against the airlines, which they say "have systematically failed to live up to their responsibilities to their customers."

New federal aviation data shows many travelers have had issues negotiating with the nation's airports this year.

Customer complaints more than doubled in the first half of the year compared to 2021, according to the data.

The number of complaints rose from 6,800 to 16,000.

More than 5,500 were related specifically to flight problems.

The transportation department is introducing a new dashboard Thursday that shows each airline's policies for certain complaints.

To view that dashboard, click here.

Winter weather continues to disrupt holiday travel across the United States on Friday, leaving travelers facing delays and cancellations during one of the busiest times of the year.

More than 5,300 Friday flights have already been canceled as of 7:40 p.m. ET, after nearly 2,700 cancellations on Thursday, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.

Thursday's cancellations represented about 11% of U.S.-based carriers' scheduled flights, according to FlightAware, with nearly half of flights delayed on Thursday.

Cancellations were highest Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, New York's LaGuardia, Chicago O'Hare, Denver International and Detroit Metro Airport, according to FlightAware data. In Canada, Toronto topped flight cancellations.

In addition to the cancellations, there had been more than 9,100 delays as of 7:40 p.m. ET among the flights still going out.

For Saturday, more than 570 flights have already been canceled. But for Christmas Day, just 10 flights have been canceled so far.

Slammed by wind-whipped snow, Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York had to shut down flights entirely.

"The Buffalo Airport Airfield has closed due to hazardous weather conditions," and all flights scheduled for the evening have been canceled, according to a tweet from the airport's official Twitter account.

At airports in Cleveland and Grand Rapids, Michigan, more than 70% of the flights have been canceled.

Ground stops

The Federal Aviation Administration posted ground stops Friday morning for flights bound for Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, American Airlines' second-largest hub, and Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC, because of deicing.

In the Pacific Northwest, FAA notices showed flights bound to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Portland International Airport were also under ground stops Friday morning because of snow and ice.

The FAA says the major air pressure changes associated with this storm will trigger high winds at airports from Boston down to Atlanta.

Airports in Chicago and Denver saw the bulk of cancellations and delays on Thursday. Chicago O'Hare International Airport was logging average delays Thursday of almost three hours due to snow and ice.

Storm has bad timing

An arctic blast and a rapidly intensifying winter storm have come at an unfortunate time for travelers trying to join family and friends for the holidays.

Airlines have issued winter weather waivers allowing passengers to rebook at no cost within a limited time period.

The growing cancellations make it harder for passengers racing against the clock and weather to rebook and arrive in time for Christmas. Flights this year were already more crowded than they've been previously — even before the storm disrupted travel schedules.

"We hear about how travel volume is still down, 5 or 10 percent, but what many folks might not have realized is that the number of flights in the sky is actually down more like 15 or 20 percent," Scott Keyes of Scott's Cheap Flights told CNN.

"The planes that are actually flying are more full today than they were pre-pandemic. That's why there's not as many empty seats to switch onto if you do find your flight gets canceled or delayed," Keyes said.

Here are links to major airlines' waivers that allow rebooking without penalty during a short window:

Train and bus service hit, too

Amtrak has also been forced to delay or cancel passenger service for some lines in the Midwest and Northeast.

Click here for details about rail service disruptions.

In its notice, Amtrak said "customers with reservations on trains that are being modified will typically be accommodated on trains with similar departure times or another day.

"Amtrak will waive additional charges for customers looking to change their reservation during the modified schedule by calling our reservation center at 1-800-USA-RAIL."

Meanwhile Greyhound, the largest provider of intercity bus service, issued a service alert Thursday evening indicating that trips in the Midwest or upper Northeast may be canceled or disrupted.

In its alert posted here, the company lists nearly 20 cities as among those impacted. It advised passengers to check bustracker.greyhound.com for the latest information about specific journeys.

Greyhound said riders can call 1-833-233-8507 to reschedule.

Winter weather is also impacting the services of regional intercity bus company Jefferson Lines, which operates in 14 states.

In an alert posted on its website, the company nearly 30 routes have been canceled for Friday, with a few cancellations listed on Saturday and Sunday. Cities impacted by the cancellations include Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Duluth and Kansas City.

Affected travelers can consult the Bus Tracker or call 1-858-800-8898.

A Spirit Airlines flight was diverted and landed safely in Jacksonville, Florida, on Wednesday after the crew reported a battery in an overhead bin was on fire.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now investigating the incident, which involved an Airbus A320 that departed from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and was headed to Orlando International Airport.

"Spirit Airlines Flight 259 landed safely at Jacksonville International Airport around 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 1 after the crew reported a battery on fire in an overhead bin," an FAA spokesperson told CNN.

The battery fire was believed to have been caused by a guest item in an overhead bin, according to a statement issued by a Spirit Airlines spokesperson. The fire was extinguished inflight.

"The plane landed at JAX and taxied to the terminal without incident," said the statement. "We thank our crew and Guests for their quick actions to ensure the safety of everyone onboard, and we thank first responders for meeting the aircraft."

Among the passengers on board was Joseph Fleck, who told CNN he was traveling with his spouse and two children to Orlando to visit Disney World.

"Someone yelled 'fire' and I look up to see the cabin filling with smoke very fast," Fleck told CNN. "A few passengers jumped up to open the overhead bin and saw a backpack on fire due to a battery pack that was charging a cell phone. It had basically exploded."

Fleck recorded a video showing fire officials boarding the plane and inspecting the overhead bin. He also shared an image of the smoke-filled cabin.

The flight descended quickly before landing in Jacksonville, said Fleck.

"The smell was terrible and made it very hard to breathe," he said, adding his children were emotional but became relieved once they exited the plane. "I was coughing a lot for a good two hours after."

Spirit Airlines didn't have a plane available for passengers impacted by the diversion, he said, so the family continued to Orlando in an Uber, which cost $250.

After a woman tested positive for COVID-19 midflight, the bathroom became her seat for the next few hours.

Marisa Fotieo was on an Icelandair flight from Chicago to Reykjavik, Iceland, on Dec. 19, en route to her final destination of Switzerland with her brother and father.

Before the flight, Fotieo told CNN she took two PCR tests and about five rapid tests, all of which came back negative. But about an hour and a half into the flight, Fotieo started to feel a sore throat.

"The wheels started turning in my brain and I thought, 'OK, I'm going to just go take a test.' It was going to make me feel better," Fotieo told CNN. "Immediately, it came back positive."

Fotieo, who is fully vaccinated and has received the booster, is an early childhood teacher in Chicago. She tests consistently since she works with an unvaccinated population.

When she got her results in the airplane bathroom, over the Atlantic Ocean, she said she started to panic.

"The first flight attendant I ran into was Rocky. I was hysterical, I was crying," Fotieo said. "I was nervous for my family who I just had dinner with. I was nervous for the other people on the plane. I was nervous for myself."

Ragnhildur Eiríksdóttir, or Rocky, the flight attendant Fotieo ran into, helped calm her down.

"Of course, it's a stress factor when something like this comes up, but that's part of our job," Eiríksdóttir told CNN.

The flight attendant said she did what she could to try to rearrange seats so Fotieo could be seated in a spot alone, but the flight was full.

"When she came back and told me she couldn't find enough seating, I opted to stay in the bathroom because I did not want to be around others on the flight," Fotieo said.

A note was then put on the bathroom door saying it was out of service, and that was Fotieo's new seat for the remainder of the flight.

CNN contacted Icelandair on Thursday for comment but has yet to hear back.

Policies vary among airlines as to how to handle a COVID-positive passenger. This comes just weeks after the U.S. and other countries have made travel restrictions amid the spread of the omicron variant.

Fotieo was inside the bathroom for about three hours. Eiríksdóttir continuously checked up on her and provided her with plenty of food and drinks.

"I was in shock that I was missing out on a family trip. I was in shock that I was going to be in Iceland alone. I was in shock that I had 20 families back home that just had me in their classroom," Fotieo said.

While inside the bathroom, she said she bought internet access and made calls to let her school know. She also made a TikTok video, which has been viewed more than 4.3 million times, as of Thursday afternoon.

Fotieo said she did not feel crammed inside the bathroom and was just happy to not be in the main cabin with the rest of the passengers, one of which was her 70-year-old father.

Quarantined in Iceland

Once the plane touched down in Iceland, Fotieo and her family were the last ones off the flight.

Since her brother and father didn't have any symptoms, they were free to take their connecting flight to Switzerland. Fotieo was given both a rapid and PCR test at the airport, both of which were positive, she said.

She was then shuttled to a Red Cross hotel where she began her 10 days of quarantine.

Doctors checked in on her three times a day, she was given meals and medication was readily available. "Honestly it has been an easy experience," Fotieo said. "It's partially due to Rocky and the breed of Icelandic people. Everyone here is so kind."

Throughout her quarantine, she continued to document the experience on TikTok. She even received Christmas gifts and snacks from Eiríksdóttir, who she had stayed in contact with over social media.

"I knew she was going to be by herself in Iceland," Eiríksdóttir said. "So even if it's isolated, if you have someone there that can bring you something is nice. So, I just had to be that someone."

Fotieo's last day of quarantine was Dec. 30 and her family planned to meet up with her then. They will be able to experience Iceland together to make up for the lost time, as their flight back to the States is on Jan. 3.

And Fotieo has plans to meet up with Eiríksdóttir before she leaves the country. Eiríksdóttir also mentioned visiting Fotieo when she has flights over to Chicago.

"Coming out of this experience I have a new friend and I have a new outlook on how much flight attendants have to do," Fotieo said. "Rocky and the flight crew had me, but they also had the other passengers to deal with on the flight."

CHICAGO — We’ve all seen them--cellphone videos of people misbehaving on flights and being removed.

This week, Delta Airlines proposed carriers share their no-fly lists of unruly passengers. It’s an effort to protect airline employees across the industry. It comes as flight crews are left to enforce pandemic-era restrictions and bear the brunt of travelers unwilling to comply.

In January, due to the disturbing increase in violent behavior on flights, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) enacted a zero-tolerance policy for anyone who “assaults, threatens, intimidates or interferes with airline crew members.”

“Post-pandemic travel is not the same,” said Ron Phifer, supervisory air marshal in charge of the Chicago field office for the Federal Air Marshal Service.

Phifer says FAA mandates like wearing a mask must be enforced on flights by federal law.

“We treat mask requirements very similar to those other safety requirements on board the aircraft, and that's what aircrews are trained to do,” said Phifer.

After a pandemic pause, the TSA resumed self-defense training for crew members this past summer. Taught by federal air marshals, it’s designed to teach them effective defensive measures for use onboard an aircraft or even in public spaces.

“They learn to defend themselves with hand strikes with using their feet, their legs. So, protecting their vital parts of their body,” said Phifer.

Lisa Hodo has been a flight attendant for more than 30 years and finally decided to take the class.

“Flight attendants have been the subject of attacks,” she said. “I mainly, I came so that I could protect myself as well as my passengers on the plane.”

Hodo says enforcing federal mask mandates has been a real challenge.

“Even though they have signed the agreement, that they're going to keep wearing the masks, they don't necessarily want to do it,” said Hodo.

So far this year, the FAA has documented nearly 4,500 reports of unruly passengers and close to 3,300 mask-related incidents.

Flight attendant and instructor Barbara Aievoly, another first-time self-defense trainee, says it’s important now more than ever to be prepared for a confrontation.

“No matter what's going on, everyone knows it's going to be filmed. And I don't want to be famous for, you know, having to handle an unruly passenger,” said Aievoly. “I'd like to de-escalate at first. But I also want to know the proper way to get out of a situation that I might not be able to handle.”

Penalties for unruly behavior have been upped with a fine of up to $37,000 or criminal charges. The FAA’s already initiated 169 enforcement cases this year and collected more than $1 million in fines.

Hodo says she hopes those deterrents will work.

“You just don't want to escalate it. That's the main thing," Hodo said. "You don't really want to have to move to the things that we're being taught in here.”

WASHINGTON —

The first flight evacuating Afghans who worked alongside Americans in Afghanistan brought more than 200 people, including scores of children and babies in arms, to resettlement in the United States on Friday, and President Joe Biden welcomed them home.

The evacuation flights, bringing out former interpreters and others who fear retaliation from the Taliban for having worked with American service members and civilians, highlight American uncertainty about how Afghanistan’s government and military will fare after the last U.S. combat forces leave that country in the coming weeks.

Family members are accompanying the interpreters, translators and others on the flights out.

The commercial airliner carrying the 221 Afghans in the special visa program, including 57 children and 15 babies, according to an internal U.S. government document obtained by The Associated Press, touched down in Dulles, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., according to the FlightAware tracking service.

Biden called the flight "an important milestone as we continue to fulfill our promise to the thousands of Afghan nationals who served shoulder-to-shoulder with American troops and diplomats over the last 20 years in Afghanistan." He said he wanted to honor the military veterans, diplomats and others in the U.S. who have advocated for the Afghans.

"Most of all," Biden said in a statement, "I want to thank these brave Afghans for standing with the United States, and today, I am proud to say to them: 'Welcome home.'"

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin lauded the Afghans for their work alongside Americans and said their arrival demonstrates the U.S. government’s commitment to them.

The Biden administration calls the effort Operation Allies Refuge. The operation has broad backing from Republican and Democratic lawmakers and from veterans groups. Supporters cite repeated instances of Taliban forces targeting Afghans who worked with Americans or with the Afghan government.

Congress on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would allow an additional 8,000 visas and $500 million in funding for the Afghan visa program.

Biden announced earlier this year the U.S. would withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, honoring a withdrawal agreement struck by former President Donald Trump. He later said the U.S. military operation would end on Aug. 31, calling it "overdue." Some administration officials have expressed surprise at the extent and speed of Taliban gains of territory in the countryside since then.

Biden said that although U.S. troops are leaving Afghanistan, the U.S. will keep supporting Afghanistan through security assistance to Afghan forces and humanitarian and development aid to the Afghan people.

The newly arrived Afghan people will join 70,000 others who have resettled in the United States since 2008 under the special visa program.

Subsequent flights are due to bring more of the roughly 700 applicants who are farthest along in the process of getting visas, having already won approval and cleared security screening.

The first arrivals were screened for the coronavirus and received vaccines if they wanted them, said Tracey Jacobson, the U.S. diplomat running the effort. They were expected to stay at Fort Lee, Virginia, for about seven days, completing medical exams and other final steps, Jacobson said. Resettlement organizations will help them as they travel to communities around the United States, with some bound for family members already here, she said.

When we spoke with Tyson Phillips and Brett Harlow, they said it was a perfect day to fly in their eyes.

“An absolutely beautiful day to fly, light winds,” Phillips said.

So, it was hard to believe that they’d want to change that.

“When we start flying, our pilot, Brett, is going to start experiencing bad visibility,” Phillips explained.

Tyson Phillips is the president of AT Systems LLC. They’ve developed a device to help train pilots in bad visibility situations.

“I cannot see anything out in front of the aircraft at this point,” said Brett Harlow, Chief Pilot of Axxeum.

Harlow was wearing an augmented reality device, which simulates clouds, dust and other weather elements that limit visibility.

“The pilot has no idea when the instructor will input,” Harlow said. “So, the pilot has no idea when to expect it.”

“With our system, we control the visibility between unlimited visibility down to no visibility and everywhere in between,” Phillips said. “When we confuse the brain with both visual and vestibular illusions, the brain struggles to comprehend and it goes into what we call a fast brain mode. It responds intuitively, but the problem is to respond intuitively. You have to have been trained and we’ve never trained pilots to deal with visual and vestibular confusion.”

That means both your eyes and your sense of balance are being thrown off.

Phillips has been in the Army for 20 years and a pilot for 17 of those. This idea came from an accident that hit close to home for him.

“In 2015, the Louisiana National Guard crashed a Black Hawk off the coast of Florida,” Phillips said. “The aircraft involved in that accident was the most advanced the Army had with a very experienced crew which led us to why do we keep having these accidents?”

Weather-related helicopter crashes aren’t anything new.

“This is a problem that's gone on as long as helicopter aviation has been around,” Phillips said.

More recently, the crash involving NBA star Kobe Bryant brought this topic worldwide attention. Phillips saw it as a learning moment, one that could bring the need for more weather-related pilot training to the spotlight.

“With the Kobe crash, it's easy to armchair quarterback and it's easy to look back on things and say, 'I won't do this, I won't do that,'” Harlow said.

Harlow flies for Axxeum, a company that does everything from search and rescue, to firefighting, to cargo and charter flights.

“Definitely is a force multiplier for the training side of it.”

Phillips said they’ve built a number of safety systems, since they are flying helicopters and purposefully obstructing a pilot’s vision. First, a safety pilot who is focused on outside the aircraft. Second, limits on the aircraft.

If the training pilot breaks those limits, Phillips said, "the entire assembly will go clear and clear in front of his field of view, the reason for this is that added layer of safety.”

“With devices like this, it definitely adds to more of the real world scenarios the pilots need,” Harlow said.

As Phillips continues to develop the device, his goal is to have it as an extra tool for pilot training for military, law enforcement, private, commercial, you name it.

“Any kind of training device or any kind of training input that I can get as a pilot, and I think most pilots would agree, that there's no such thing as over training in aviation,” Harlow said.

United Airlines is trying to bring back supersonic travel. They announced a deal this week with a Denver-area start-up called Boom Supersonic.

It announced it's buying 15 new jets from a Denver startup.

The jets would carry between 65 to 88 people at a speed of Mach 1.7 and it would cut flight times almost in half.

A flight from New York to London would be 3.5 hours compared to the normal 6.5 hours.

The planes have not been built yet. United plans to have passengers on-board by 2029. It's been nearly 20 years since the Concorde supersonic plane was retired.

Robin Dich and Alex Livingston contributed to this report.