Jack Sweeney, a 19-year-old student in the United States has risen to fame like the teenager who tracks the private planes of the rich. He posts his movements on Twitter, using publicly available data and an automated computer program, ie a bot.
Sweeney first came to the attention of the media for following the movements of the biggest names in the tech industry, people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Now he is also tracking the private jets of some of Russia’s richest billionaires, the so-called oligarchs. The bot uses a public database to track the aircraft and then automatically tweets its location and flight times every time one of the planes takes off or lands.
One of his targets is Vladimir Potanin. Potanin is the 10th richest person in the world and the second in Russia. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Potanin’s estimated net worth is about €78 billion.
Roman Abramovich’s Jet LX-RAY Landed near Moscow, Moscow Oblast, UK. pic.twitter.com/gWWySuSUlj
— Russian Oligarch Jets (@RUOligarchJets) March 1, 2022
He also tracks Roman Abramovich’s planes and helicopters. Abramovich is the owner, among other things, of Chelsea, the famous football club in the United Kingdom and current winner of the Champions League, although the administration of the club has cededapparently due to the war in Ukraine and the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia as a result of it.