Florida

He was tracking Elon Musk’s jet. Now this Florida teen has moved on to Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 3, 2022. (Andrei Gorshkov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 3, 2022. (Andrei Gorshkov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) AP

Jack Sweeney may be going places.

The 19-year-old college student first made headlines after he began tweeting out the itinerary of Elon Musk’s private plane.

Elon Musk
Elon Musk Miami Herald file

The Tesla mogul wasn’t pleased and offered Jack Sweeney $5,000 to take the account down. The boy wonder refused, asking for a fancy car instead, which Musk refused.

The techie’s latest hobby? Tracking the movements of Russian oligarchs and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sweeney’s two new accounts, created by popular demand from his fans, are @RUOligarchJets and @PutinJet.

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The University of Central Florida student managed to chat with Fox morning show “America’s Newsroom” on Friday morning in between juggling classes.

The Orlando resident explained that all planes have identifiers instead of radar that can be tracked and this is public data.

“I make it more available,” he said of the flight notification bot he created.

The profiles have gained more than 400,000 followers since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last week.

Sweeney says he is doing this to “help” disseminate information.

This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 6:07 PM with the headline "He was tracking Elon Musk’s jet. Now this Florida teen has moved on to Vladimir Putin."

Madeleine Marr
Miami Herald
Celebrity/real time news reporter Madeleine Marr has been with The Miami Herald since 2003. She has covered such features as travel, fashion and food. In 2007, she helped launch the newspaper’s daily People Page, attending red carpet events, awards ceremonies and press junkets; interviewing some of the biggest names in show business; and hosting her own online show. She is originally from New York City.
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