University of Central Florida junior Jack Sweeney has doubled down on his efforts to track Taylor Swift’s flights, despite a cease-and-desist letter Swift’s legal advisors sent him last December. Sweeney told a British publication that Swift flew 178,000 miles on her two private jets last year. Two weeks ago, the college student released a Youtube video claiming Swift’s jets flew enough miles last year to crisscross the world seven times and emitted a total of 1,200 tons of CO2 emissions.
Sweeney, whose father is an aircraft maintenance worker, first made his name by tracking Elon Musk’s flights in 2020 (which led to similar cease-and-desist letters) under the X (formerly known as Twitter) account ElonJet, which was suspended but still exists on other social-media platforms. The 21-year-old subsequently started a new account on X called @ElonJetNextDay, which has a 24-hour lag time complying with X’s rules, and continues to post Musk’s flight information.
Sweeney also revealed flight information regarding Russian oligarchs—an account that was also suspended—before turning to Swift.
Despite a cease-and-desist letter, Jack Sweeney continues to track Swift’s jets.
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“While this may be a game to you, or an avenue that you hope will earn you wealth or fame, it is a life-or-death matter for our client,” Swift’s cease-and-desist letter read. A spokesperson for the pop star told The Sun that Sweeney’s Instagram account, dedicated to Swift’s jet, had a “connection” to a man who was arrested in January outside of the singer’s Manhattan townhouse, though that connection was not made clear.
Since the letter, Sweeney told The Sun he has heard nothing from Swift’s lawyers. “It’s pretty much like with Elon, you know, they’ll say something to intimidate the smaller person,” he said. “It’s the attention they’re getting that they don’t like.”
Sweeney, who is majoring in information technology and once hoped to work for SpaceX or Tesla, told the BBC he has no malice toward Swift or Musk. But he believes that anybody should be able to see these celebrity flights, and how often they fly. He also has accounts tracking the jets of Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner. “I like to be fair,” he told the BBC. “I try to share everyone’s info no matter who it is.” Sweeney added that he believes in the “importance of transparency and public information.”
Elon Musk may not be rid of Jack Sweeney just yet. The college student plans to post a video of all of Musk’s 2023 flights on X.
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But others believe this flight tracking through open-source intelligence is not only a violation of privacy but could lead to physical endangerment.
“It’s akin to driving on the interstate and having anybody pick up your license plate to see who’s in the car and where you’re going,” Doug Carr, senior vice president of safety, security, sustainability, and international affairs for the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), told Robb Report. “This isn’t just about lifestyles of the rich and famous. It’s about basic security and not being able to track people in real time—which, by the way, is illegal anywhere else.”
The business jet trade association has seen impacts beyond celebrity shaming, with one chief executive’s aircraft tracked during an acquisition as part of a rival’s corporate espionage campaign. Another prominent NBAA member had a personal confrontation with an unstable individual who had stalked her. “Privacy sounds abstract, but it got personal for us quickly,” says Martha King, who cofounded pilot-training academy King Schools with her husband, John. “Now we’re more cautious flying into unknown airports.”
Jack Sweeney’s ElonJet started the trend of celebrity jet tracking.
Courtesy Jack Sweeney
There are some indications that the public outing of private flying habits of the rich and famous has had an impact. LVMH’s Bernard Arnault sold his Bombardier Global in 2022 after intense public scrutiny, and now takes charter flights, where passenger manifests are not public. Swift seems to have switched to charter flights, Sweeney told The Sun, because he has noticed fewer flight hours on her jets this year. “The flyers are trying to hide the bad PR of [carbon] emissions,” he said to the BBC.
Swift is not even in the top 10 of celebrities based on her jet usage, Sweeney told The Sun. Ranked in terms of carbon output, the top three celebrity fliers are currently Travis Scott, Kim Kardashian, and Elon Musk.
Sweeney’s now working on a video of Musk’s flights last year. He says the SpaceX founder will “probably not” be too pleased when it posts on X.