Photo: Twitter / Jack Sweeney
If Elon Musk is still hoping the student who’s tracking his private jet and then sharing flight information on social media will shut the entire operation down, there is hope. Jack Sweeney, the student in question, is still open to the idea.
Jack Sweeney first made headlines earlier this year, when he went public with the DMs (direct messages) he’d gotten from Elon Musk on Twitter. By then, Sweeney had already been tracking Musk’s private jet for several months, posting flight information under the handle @ElonJet. While Sweeney’s operation was not illegal (it still isn’t), Musk took exception with it, saying it posed a danger to his personal safety to have strangers know where he was in real time.
In short, Musk asked that Sweeney shut down the page or, at the very least, post the same information with a delay of a few hours, so he’d be safe. If he was willing to shut down the page, Musk would have paid Sweeney $5,000, an amount the student considered too small. Instead, he asked Musk to throw in a Tesla Model S or, even better, add another zero to the amount so he could pay his student debt. After months of occasional exchanges, Musk told Sweeney that it didn’t feel right “pay to shut this down,” but not before he picked the student’s brain on what he could to do not have his jet’s data on publicly available platforms.
Sweeney still hopes Musk will come around, and he’s willing to shut down the Twitter page free of charge – in the sense that he’s no longer asking for money. Instead, he’d like to board the jet, a 2015 Gulfstream G650, just once, so he and Musk can have a chat. It will be recorded, of course. Sweeney may be young, but he’s clearly old enough to know that a one-on-one interview with Musk is where the real money is.
“If he let me fly with him on his jet, record it and talk about it – and maybe not even pay me the $50,000 [previously asked for] — I would take it down,” Sweeney tells the Daily Star. “That is still up for discussion.”
It may be up for discussion on his part, but Musk made it clear where he stood back then. Since attaining notoriety with the tracking of Musk’s jet, Sweeney has moved on to equally big fish: he’s set up several such pages, tracking the private jets of almost everyone who’s anyone, from reality star Kim Kardashian to Bill Gates and sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
In short, Musk asked that Sweeney shut down the page or, at the very least, post the same information with a delay of a few hours, so he’d be safe. If he was willing to shut down the page, Musk would have paid Sweeney $5,000, an amount the student considered too small. Instead, he asked Musk to throw in a Tesla Model S or, even better, add another zero to the amount so he could pay his student debt. After months of occasional exchanges, Musk told Sweeney that it didn’t feel right “pay to shut this down,” but not before he picked the student’s brain on what he could to do not have his jet’s data on publicly available platforms.
Sweeney still hopes Musk will come around, and he’s willing to shut down the Twitter page free of charge – in the sense that he’s no longer asking for money. Instead, he’d like to board the jet, a 2015 Gulfstream G650, just once, so he and Musk can have a chat. It will be recorded, of course. Sweeney may be young, but he’s clearly old enough to know that a one-on-one interview with Musk is where the real money is.
“If he let me fly with him on his jet, record it and talk about it – and maybe not even pay me the $50,000 [previously asked for] — I would take it down,” Sweeney tells the Daily Star. “That is still up for discussion.”
It may be up for discussion on his part, but Musk made it clear where he stood back then. Since attaining notoriety with the tracking of Musk’s jet, Sweeney has moved on to equally big fish: he’s set up several such pages, tracking the private jets of almost everyone who’s anyone, from reality star Kim Kardashian to Bill Gates and sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
Yeah there is I was talking to Elon about it, but I believe it’s a lot of work. Also got a offer to take the account down but not enough for the amount of work and time I’ve put into it.
— Jack Sweeney (@JxckSweeney) January 18, 2022
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