The whiz kid who caught Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s attention by tracking his private jet revealed this week that he has uncovered a personal plane utilized by another tech billionaire: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Jack Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida, tweeted last month that the original aircraft tracked on his @ZuccJet account was “not Mark’s anymore.”
But by this week, the teenager said he had identified a new jet tied to Zuckerberg and reprogrammed the tracking account.
“Well jackpot @ZuccJet should be completely accurate now,” Sweeney tweeted alongside a purported photo of the plane. “We’ve found Mark Zuckerberg’s jet N68885. Numerous trips point it being his.”
Sweeney uses publicly available flight data to automate Twitter accounts tracking the movements of private jets owned or used by several notable public figures, including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. When the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, Sweeney set up an account tracking superyachts linked to prominent oligarchs.
The @ZuccJet account has slightly more than 7,000 followers as of Thursday morning, while Sweeney’s most popular account, the Musk-tracking @ElonJet, has well over 400,000 followers.
Sweeney did not provide further specifics on how he determined the plane was linked to Zuckerberg. Efforts to reach him were not immediately successful before publication.
Meta representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Critics of Sweeney’s work, including Musk himself, have argued the accounts pose a security risk.
Meta spends a fortune each year on security measures meant to shield Zuckerberg and his immediate family from potential threats. The tech giant noted in a recent SEC filing that it had begun chartering a plane for Zuckerberg’s use.
“Since March 2022, we charter a private aircraft that is indirectly and wholly owned by Mr. Zuckerberg and operated by an independent charter company for business and personal travel by Mr. Zuckerberg,” the filing said.
As The Post previously reported, Meta’s security spending for Zuckerberg approached $27 million in 2021 – with more than $15 million of that sum earmarked for “personal security for Mr. Zuckerberg at his residences” as well as during his personal travel.
Meta told shareholders the spending is necessary because its top boss is “synonymous with Meta and, as a result, negative sentiment regarding our company is directly associated with, and often transferred to, Mr. Zuckerberg.”
Sweeney drew national attention earlier this year after The Post and other outlets reported that Musk has contacted him – offering $5,000 to delete the tracking account because it posed a “security risk.”
“I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase,” Musk said in one message to Sweeney.
Sweeney counteroffered, requesting $50,000 and an internship. Musk said he’d consider the offer but eventually stopped responding.
Aside from gaining Twitter followers, Sweeney landed a job offer from Stratos Jet Charters, an Orlando-based private charter flight firm. He also began selling merchandise to monetize his accounts as a business.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
