A picture of a private jet flight log has created anger on Reddit, with the aircraft owned by Tesla owner and CEO Elon Musk.
The information was pulled from TheAirTraffic.com, a website created in 2023 to share air traffic data.
Jack Sweeney collates the data and shares it on multiple social media platforms. Sweeney's X account, @ElonJet, was suspended from the platform in 2022 but continues to post details under @ElonJetNextDay on a 24-hour delay.
This particular flight shows the Gulfstream G650ER taking off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and then completing a short oval-shaped route before landing.
According to Reddit's plane-notify bot, the trip burned 789 pounds of jet fuel, which would have created one ton of carbon dioxide pollution.
Sweeney has a notable track record of posting the flight data of multiple public figures and celebrities, including Taylor Swift and Jeff Bezos. Musk's jet registration number has been verified by Vice, among other sources.
The fuel usage calculations are trickier to confirm, but if the numbers are true, it's a notable release of air pollution for a trip that was seemingly unnecessary. It's also very expensive.
One Redditor had a theory as to why the aircraft was in the air for such a short period of time and returned to its original location without landing anywhere else.
"Jets need to log certain flight hours," they said. "A lot of jets fly empty in worthless trips to satisfy requirements."
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Another possible explanation is that the flight had to be canceled after takeoff, but the consensus was this was a planned route. Indeed, the plane-notify account also noted that it was "likely a test flight," with a few reasons discussed by those with expertise in the matter, such as "probably just a maintenance verification flight for an engine change, flight control surface work, or something to that effect."
While one could argue that's part of the deal with airplanes and that they must undergo tests at times, the other side of that is this only further illustrates the polluting downsides of private jet usage. While a large commercial passenger plane is transporting typically hundreds of passengers at a time and tests would still keep the average "person per flight" total high, private jet usage almost always comes out with a low total of people transported per journey or per 1,000 gallons of fuel.
Private jet usage is a notable cause of planet-warming pollution. Nonprofit group Transport & Environment has noted that just 1% of people cause 50% of all global aviation emissions.
"In just one hour, a single private jet can emit two tonnes of CO2," T&E detailed. "The average person in the EU emits 8.2 tCO2eq over the course of an entire year."
Flights that serve zero purpose are even more infuriating than short trips taken by rich jet owners, and this flight taken by Musk's aircraft is a perfect example of that.
"Interesting, that's so very f*****!" one Redditor said.
Scientists are working on more sustainable ways to fly, with alternative fuels and even solar power being tested, but until the day comes when we can avoid harmful jet fuel, private jet trips such as this will continue to enrage people who care about the health of our planet.
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