Musk and Russian Private Jets Followed... US Teen Also Tracks Oligarch Yachts

(Source=Twitter capture)

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Following Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, a US teenager who has been tracking the private jet routes of Russian emerging oligarchs has now started tracking their yachts as well.

On the 6th (local time), according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and others, Jack Sweeney, a 19-year-old college student living in Florida, USA, created a Twitter account called 'Russia Yachts (@RussiaYachts)' the day before and posted a list of 23 yachts owned by Russian oligarchs, stating he would track their movement routes. The account currently has over 10,000 followers.

Sweeney explained the background of starting this by saying, "Many people asked me through my personal direct messages, 'Can you track yachts too?'"

Earlier, at the end of last month, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sweeney created Twitter accounts named 'RussiaOligarchJets (@RUOligarchJets)' and 'PutinJet (@Putinjet)'. He provides information through a program that uses publicly available data from transponders that provide longitude, latitude, altitude, and location of aircraft in operation to track their routes.

WSJ reported that Sweeney can determine the location of yachts through onboard safety devices that transmit and monitor the positions of large vessels. Sweeney mentioned that accessing the automatic identification system database, which collects this information, requires payment, so currently he is doing this manually one by one.

Last month, Sweeney first gained attention by creating the Twitter account 'ElonJet (@ElonJet)', which posts the times and locations of Elon Musk CEO’s private jet takeoffs and landings, as well as travel durations. Later, Musk requested $5,000 to take down the information for security reasons, but Sweeney countered by asking for $50,000. Eventually, Musk did not accept this, and the situation was resolved.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.