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Sweeney, who rose to internet fame – and drew the ire of the world’s richest person – with his viral Twitter account “Elon’s Jet,” is now tracking the planes of some of Russia’s wealthiest people, as the country faces mounting international pressure over its invasion of Ukraine.
While Sweeney is not the only person offering such services, what distinguishes Sweeney’s accounts is their ease of access and the enticing window they provide into the lives of today’s billionaires. Sweeney’s Twitter accounts are the “People Magazine version” of corporate aviation intelligence, according to Colby Howard, president of Paragon Intel, which provides corporate aviation intelligence through its product JetTrack.
Sweeney, for his part, claims he began the accounts in response to numerous requests to track the aircraft of Russia’s oligarchs. The teen was able to quickly set up another Twitter account by using a list of planes being tracked by a blog called “Radar Spots.” In just a few days, it has amassed over 53,000 followers.
“The aircrafts these oligarchs have are absolutely insane,” Sweeney told Bloomberg, noting that Russia’s wealthiest people were flying on commercial-sized planes such as an Airbus A319 and a Boeing 737. “Their planes are enormous in comparison to other jets.”
The Russian Oligarch Jets account tracks a variety of aircraft, including helicopters, private jets, and commercial-sized planes owned by Vladimir Potanin, Russia’s richest person, Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, and steel billionaire Alexander Abramov.
While it may be interesting for the average person to see where the Russian oligarchs are flying to next, Paragon’s Howard points out that it does not include information to contextualize the flights, such as who may be on the flights or the historical significance of the movement, and other information that intelligence officers or investors would need to make critical decisions.
