Jack Sweeney: The planespotting student who angers Taylor Swift and Elon Musk

BBC ^ | Feb 11 | BBC

[RandFan]

A university student from Florida has made a habit of getting under the skin of some of the world's richest and most powerful people. How? By telling the rest of us where their private planes are - and how much carbon they emit.

Jack Sweeney would like to clarify a few details. For one thing, he thinks Taylor Swift has some good tunes.

However, he believes - despite the threat of legal action - that anybody should be able to see where her private jet is headed, and how often it flies.

"I like to be fair," he told the BBC in an email. "I try to share everyone's info no matter who it is."

But it is specifically information about the locations of private planes of the rich and powerful - posted to his social media accounts - that has repeatedly made the 21-year-old the subject of news stories and legal threats.

Mr Sweeney is the son of an airline maintenance operations controller and a teacher, and grew up in the suburbs of Orlando. He says he has always had an interest in aviation and technology, and particularly in Elon Musk's SpaceX and Tesla companies.

Those interests gradually led him to develop a plane tracking website, TheAirTraffic.com, and social media accounts which track the aircraft of celebrities, politicians, tycoons and Russian oligarchs.

[ridesthemiles]

He should track Hunter & John Kerry

[lepton]

However, he believes - despite the threat of legal action - that anybody should be able to see where her private jet is headed, and how often it flies.

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...In real time, allowing people to identify when the plane is coming in for a landing and where.

[lepton]

He’s not simply looking up flights. He has figured out how to crack the encoded FAA flight management system so that he can *live*-post the plane whereabouts as it flies from place to place.