I was quite stuck when trying to make my script redirect the client to another URL and then continue processing. The reason was php-fpm. All possible buffer flushes did not work, unless I called fastcgi_finish_request();

For example:

<?php
    // redirecting...
    ignore_user_abort(true);
    header("Location: ".$redirectUrl, true);
    header("Connection: close", true);
    header("Content-Length: 0", true);
    ob_end_flush();
    flush();
    fastcgi_finish_request(); // important when using php-fpm!
    
    sleep (5); // User won't feel this sleep because he'll already be away
    
    // do some work after user has been redirected
?>