Elon Musk's Private Jet Presence Tracker Will Delete His Account If Given A New Tesla Car

JAKARTA - Jack Sweeney, a 19-year-old teenager who can track the movements of Elon Musk's private jet, said he might stop tracking the Tesla CEO if he got a new Tesla car from the world's richest man.

Jack Sweeney, regularly broadcasts Musk's flights from the Twitter account @ElonJet. He said in an interview on Saturday, February 12 that he would consider closing the account in exchange for 50.000 (IDR 716 million) or a Tesla car.

"I just started out as a hobby, and I didn't want to give up my hobby for something that wasn't really going to change my life," Sweeney told CNN broadcaster Michael Smerconish.

“I don't have a car right now, and it would be great to have a car. And [the Tesla] will be a really cool car," he said as quoted by CNN.

The teenager previously revealed that Musk had sent him a private message on Twitter asking him to delete the account because it was a "security risk", saying: "I don't like the idea of ​​being shot by a madman."

Sweeney said the Tesla and SpaceX boss, who is the world's richest person according to Bloomberg with a net worth of $224 billion, offered him $5.000 to stop tracking the movements of his jet. But the small offer he refused.

"There's some merit to [Mr Musk's claim], but I don't know if he's completely honest that it's all security," Mr. Sweeney said last Saturday. "Maybe he just doesn't want to be seen."

The Independent has asked Tesla and SpaceX for comment. But there has been no response so far.

Like most planes, the movements of Musk's private Gulfstream jet are publicly available from flight tracking databases such as OpenSky, although Musk has asked some data providers to hide his jets from their users.

Sweeney also tracked down private jets used by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and former President Donald Trump.

However, @ElonJet has received fierce opposition from many Musk fans, some of whom have a history of ganging up on and harassing his critics on Twitter.

"This account reserves the right to post the whereabouts of the jet," Sweeney said on Twitter last month. “The ADS-B data is public, every plane in the world is required to have a transponder, even [Air Force One, the US presidential jet].”

But he has also come under fire from supporters of Elon Musk on Twitter. “What you did was put Elon in danger. You have to take this down," said one Musk supporter. Another said: "This is not a matter of legality, it is a matter of decency."

Sweeney is currently studying IT at the University of Central Florida with the hope of working in aviation software. No wonder he is able to have the knowledge and skills to do all that.