A 19-year-old has used his skills to track the slightest movement of Elon Musk’s private jet. Each flight is published on Twitter, which worried the boss of Tesla and SpaceX.
You can be a financial magnate, one of the biggest names in global tech, and feel hunted on the Internet. Jack Sweeney, a 19-year-old American, created a Twitter account (@ElonJet) which tracks all the movements of Elon Musk’s private jet. Alerted, the businessman exchanged a few messages on Twitter with the young man. The first message sets the tone: “Can you remove that? It’s a risk to my safety.”
Not intimidated, Jack Sweeney answered him. The boss of Tesla then offered him $ 5,000 to close this account, to which Sweeney replied that an extra zero would not be refused, just to finance part of his studies and to afford a Model 3. Elon Musk did not respond to the request, and the brief exchanges continued. Recently, the young American changed his mind: he would prefer an internship rather than a car or financial compensation.
Take off from Kahului, Hawaii, US. pic.twitter.com/V3VWmznSnY
— Elon Musk’s Jet (@ElonJet) January 25, 2022
Elon Musk also inquired about the method used by the young man. Passionate about aviation, and with a father working in the airline industry, he simply used various tools available online. Nothing illegal. He cross-referenced the data and set up an interpretation system. Final step: create Twitter bots to automatically publish the smallest movements corresponding to Elon Musk’s private jet. A method that intrigued the billionaire: “Air traffic control is so primitive.”
Jack Sweeney does not only track Elon Musk’s movements. The young man has indeed opened 15 accounts of this kind and follows, among others, the jets of Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates. With nearly 120,000 subscribers, the @ElonJet account nevertheless remains the most followed.
Now, Jack is waiting for news from Musk about his possible internship, but suspects that he has disconnected while taking a vacation in Hawaii. That’s what the flight data seems to indicate, even though the jet has returned to the United States in recent days.