Florida student who tracked Elon Musk monitoring Ron DeSantis' plane

Florida student tracking Ron DeSantis' plane

Jack Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida who tracked Elon Musk's plane, is now tracking the jet used by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He talked with FOX 35 about why he's doing it.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Jack Sweeney has made quite a name for himself in his two years while a student at the University of Central Florida.

The wealthy and powerful people he is tracking on social media may not like what he's doing, but he is only using information that is publicly available.

"The jet that I am tracking is related to state matters, but I still think it's like rather interesting to see," he said, explaining his latest project.

Sweeney has famously tracked Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Now, it's Gov. Ron DeSantis.

"It's just something I have an interest in. Nothing like crazy. I try to develop and share what I do and hope people take interest in, uh, whatever they have a person they're interested in and what planes are related to those people," he said.

The first tweet on the account @DeSantisJet showed that the plane was flying from Tallahassee to Tampa on May 17. It should also be noted that there is no guarantee that the governor is on every flight.

"As I become aware of also, other companies have said that he's taking donor flights like for personal matters of running for president. I'll also share those as I become aware of those," Sweeney said.

This tracker could also have political implications, unlike Musk's jet. That's because there might be wealthy or influential guests on board. There was also a law recently signed in Tallahassee that allows the governor to redact who is flying with him.

"I think there's a lot to learn from people's flights. And like, if he flew somewhere that's out of the unusual, which I'm sure someone will find out before just my jet," said Sweeney. "But like, if he went somewhere, it might be to show that where he's announcing or something like that or anything related to their travels could be some kind of big deal also."

You may recall that Sweeney turned down a $5,000 offer by Musk to delete the account. Sweeney said it's not about the money but about sharing information. And maybe a job down the road.

One thing he is doing this time around is that he can no longer live-tweet the jet's location, due to a change in Twitter policy, so it's delayed by 24 hours.