UCF student tracking Elon Musk’s jet is now following Gov. DeSantis’ jet too

One University of Central Florida student made headlines when he began tracking Elon Musk’s private jet on Twitter, using publicly available flight data. (Famously, Musk tried to buy his account, then suspended it.) Now, he’s back and keeping tabs on Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Jack Sweeney is now tracking DeSantis’ government-owned plane, shortly after the governor signed a bill shielding his transportation records from the public and ahead of an expected presidential campaign announcement.

Sweeney told Insider he set up the account, @DeSantisJet, due to the rising interest in the governor.

While the transportation bill (SB 1616) will provide a public-records exemption for DeSantis’ travel records, it’s still possible to track down his jet’s whereabouts using the flight tracking platform ADS-B Exchange.

After Sweeney first began tracking Musk’s jet early last year, Musk offered him $5,000 to take down the account. Sweeney countered with a request for $50K or a new Tesla; Musk refused and when he took over as Twitter CEO, he shut down the account, @ElonJet, himself.

The Orlando student got around the ban by creating another account, @ElonJetNextDay, which tracks Musk’s flights with a 24-hour delay to comply with Twitter’s updated privacy policy restricting users from sharing people’s live locations.

The account tracking DeSantis’ flights will also be implementing a 24-hour delay to comply with the policy.

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This article appears in Summer Guide 2023.