The teenager known for tracking Elon Musk’s jet has started to monitor the flight paths of Russian oligarchs as their movements come under increasing scrutiny following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a new Twitter account created over the weekend, 19-year-old Jack Sweeney from Florida has already amassed nearly 162,000 followers as the teen tracks the private jets of at least 21 Russian billionaires and tycoons.
According to the new account @RuOligarchJets, the private jets and helicopters of Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club, have been taking off and touching down in various destinations including Moscow, Baku, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Dubai as of Monday.
In addition to tracking flight movements, Sweeney also tracks other measures including fuel usage and cost.
According to @RuOligarchJets, Abramovich’s Jet LX-RAY that landed in Baku had a flight time of 2 hours and 27 minutes, used 3,767kg of jet fuel which cost $6,369 and spent 13 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Other oligarchs being tracked by Sweeney include the steel magnate Alexander Abramov. According to Sweeney’s tracking, Abramov’s jets and helicopters have been taking off and touching down in locales spread across the world including London, Seychelles, Antigua and Barbuda and Abu Dhabi.
Speaking to NBC, the 19-year-old University of Central Florida student said, “It’s just been crazy. I just figured some people would be interested in it. I just didn’t think all kinds of people would be.”
Sweeney, who is studying information technology, added, “Before this, I didn’t even know there were these [influential] oligarchs like this. They probably do have a decent amount of power from what I can understand.”
Howard Stoffer, an international affairs professor and Russia specialist at the University of New Haven, told NBC that these oligarchs “are the glitterati of Russia”.
“They should be exposed and they should be paying whatever price a country can extract from them … Get these [airplane] tail numbers out. Tell the governments these are the people, this is where they’re located and let them take whatever action they feel is appropriate,” he added.
Along with Russian billionaires, Sweeney also has started tracking the flight paths of planes and jets owned by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Last week, he launched @PutinJet but added a disclaimer, saying, “Don’t expect this to be too accurate though, there are a dozen VIP Russian planes and ADS-B [Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast] coverage isn’t great in Russia.”
In addition to the Russian president and tycoons, Sweeney created at least 16 other automated Twitter accounts that track the flight movements of the rich and famous, including the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and the rapper Drake.
“They’re either really prominent people or just like really interesting,” Sweeney said recently, referring to the people he tracks.
