Elon Musk Abandons FAA Program Aimed at Concealing His Private Jet Travels, According to JetSpy Data
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has apparently stopped taking advantage of a federal program designed to help hide his air travels, according to aircraft-tracking company JetSpy. Last year, Musk attempted to avoid jet-tracking offering a college student money to stop sharing live data of his flights on Twitter. However, it seems that he has now ceased using the program altogether.
The program in question is a free Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiative that allows private jet owners to fly incognito using temporary aircraft registration numbers. Musk signed up for this program in January 2022 but has not utilized it since August 20, 2022.
JetSpy revealed that Musk applied for a new aircraft registration number four times. He first joined the FAA’s privacy ICAO aircraft address program (PIA) on January 25, 2022, but eventually returned to using his permanent ICAO address after just one flight with the temporary registration number.
Despite this development, Musk’s planes are still registered on the FAA’s “Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed” program (LADD), which prevents flight data from being shown on certain flight-tracking websites. However, they can still be detected websites like JetSpy that employ independent radios to track aircraft.
University of Central Florida student Jack Sweeney originally gained attention when he started posting Musk’s travel coordinates on social media. Musk tried to persuade Sweeney to stop offering him $5,000, but Sweeney instead advised him to sign up for the FAA’s PIA program, which Musk later did.
Although the PIA program allows aircraft owners to change their registration number every 20 days, it can be a cumbersome process involving substantial paperwork. Additionally, if the new registration number is exposed and linked to the owner, the entire process must start over again.
Sweeney pointed out that Musk’s Gulfstream jet can be easily identified due to its frequent trips between airports near SpaceX’s launch site in Texas and its headquarters in California. Furthermore, when planes fly internationally, they are required to use their permanent ICAO addresses instead of the PIA registration number, posing a potential issue for Musk who has visited Shanghai and Rome in 2023.
The FAA has admitted that the PIA program is not a foolproof solution to jet-tracking. While it limits real-time identification of aircraft using inexpensive receivers, alternative methods such as plane spotting and movement correlations can still be used to identify program participants.
As of now, Musk has not responded to Insider’s request for comment on this matter.