Jack Sweeney

Jack Sweeney (born ) is an American programmer. In 2022, he became known for creating Twitter bots to track the private jets of Russian oligarchs and other prominent individuals, including Elon Musk through the ElonJet account, and Taylor Swift.

Life Sweeney's father, a Technical Operations Controller for American Airlines, introduced him to aviation when he was young. Sweeney would use flight-tracking data to track his father coming home when he commuted from Dallas back to Florida.

In the beginning of 2022, Sweeney was a freshman at the University of Central Florida, In February 2022, Sweeney stated in an interview with Bloomberg Wealth that he was establishing a company called "Ground Control" that monitors flight activity of prominent billionaires.

Creation of flight monitoring tools As a teenager, Sweeney developed Twitter bots to track and share the locations of the private jets of several individuals including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and Drake. His program uses public data sources including the Federal Aviation Administration, OpenSky Network, and Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast. In June 2020, he created the "Elon Musk's Jet" Twitter account, dedicated to tracking Musk's private jet by using bots that scrape publicly available air traffic data.

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sweeney began tweeting the location of approximately 30 private jets belonging to Russian oligarchs. In a March 2022 interview with CBS MoneyWatch, Sweeney stated his desire to see their planes seized.

In April 2022, Sweeney stopped tracking Mark Cuban's travel in exchange for his friendship and business advice.

In May 2023, Sweeney began tracking the flights of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis after DeSantis signed a bill into law redacting details of his trips he made as Governor.

Legal threats by public figures

Elon Musk In November 2021, Musk cited security concerns and requested that Sweeney stop tracking his private Gulfstream jet in exchange for $5,000. Sweeney responded that he might stop tracking Musk's private jet in exchange for an internship, , or a Tesla Model 3. On December 14, 2022, Twitter suspended Sweeney's airplane-tracking accounts for Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Russian oligarchs, as well as Sweeney's personal Twitter account. On December 15, a number of high-profile journalists were banned after covering Twitter's removal of the ElonJet account.

Musk announced that he would be taking legal action against Sweeney. In support of his intended legal action, Musk alleged that in Los Angeles, a car carrying his 2-year-old son was followed by a "crazy stalker" who thought Musk was inside, "blocked [the] car from moving" and "climbed onto [the] hood." A Los Angeles Police detective in the stalking investigations unit said they had no evidence indicating that the alleged stalker had used ElonJet. Regarding the incident, South Pasadena police said that they were investigating "an assault with a deadly weapon involving a vehicle", and labelled a member of Musk's security team as a "suspect".

Sweeney has posted publicly available information about Musk's flights and airports used, but Sweeney did not share information about Musk's cars or family members.

Taylor Swift In December 2023, lawyers for Taylor Swift sent a cease and desist letter to Sweeney regarding the tracking of her private jet. Swift's lawyers stated that Sweeney's tracking presents a safety concern for Swift; Sweeney commented that the data he posts is publicly available on the Federal Aviation Administration database of flight data. The @TaylorSwiftJets Instagram account, owned by Sweeney, had shared a post estimating the carbon footprint of Swift's travel tied to her Eras Tour, after which the account was suspended by the platform. Sweeney said that he received the letter after media outlets began scrutinizing Swift's carbon footprint.