Fans are continuing to monitor Taylor Swift’s jet from Tokyo despite Swift’s legal team asking them not to.
All eyes are on the 34-year-old pop star’s $54 million Dassault Falcon-9 business jet after even the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. assured Swifties that no bureaucratic obstacles will stand in the way of her making it back in time to the US to watch her NFL player boyfriend Travis Kelce play in the 2024 Super Bowl.
Various public platforms – including FlightRadar24, JetSpy, and social media channels – helped fans track their favourite pop star as she makes her much anticipated 12-hour flight from Tokyo to Las Vegas.
However, the “Anti-Hero” singer’s attorneys have been quick to crack down on those tracking her. In December, she threatened to “escalate” legal action against Jack Sweeney – a junior at the University of Central Florida – who runs social media accounts that track the private jets of her and other celebrities.
Sweeney’s account typically follows the takeoffs and landings of planes and helicopters owned by hundreds of billionaires, politicians, Russian oligarchs, and other public figures. He often analyses their traveling habits and estimates their emissions by using data from the Federal Aviation Administration as well as from those who have figured out how to track an aircraft through the broadcast signals. The accounts usually don’t account for specific details like who is using the aircraft or where the passengers are headed once they land.
Swift isn’t the first celebrity he’s pissed off, Elon Musk banned Sweeney from X, formerly Twitter, after he shared what the platform’s owner the SpaceX founder called his “assassination coordinates.”
Through her attorney Katie Wright Morrone from the Washington law firm Venable, Swift sent Sweeney a cease-and-desist letter in December warning that the “Cruel Summer” singer would be forced to pursue legal action if he didn’t end this “stalking and harassing behavior.”
“While this may be a game to you, or an avenue that you hope will earn you wealth or fame, it is a life-or-death matter for our Client,” Morrone wrote in the letter, posted to Reddit. She stressed that there was “no legitimate interest in or public need for this information, other than to stalk, harass, and exert dominion and control.”
She also argued that by tracking Swift’s movements, Sweeney had caused “direct and irreparable harm, as well as emotional and physical distress” to the pop star and her family. Swift has a history of facing stalkers who have repeatedly tried to invade her privacy by showing up outside of her properties, with one man recently being arrested for stalking and harassment outside of her Manhattan townhouse in January.
When Swift’s publicist Tree Paine was asked if any of the flight tracking accounts had been used to stalk her client, she told multiple outlets: “We cannot comment on any ongoing police investigation but can confirm the timing of stalkers suggests a connection. His posts tell you exactly when and where she would be.”
After four concerts in Tokyo, the pop star will take an ultra-fast trip to try to make it in time to Las Vegas to watch her boyfriend play for the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Once the celebrations are over, the Grammy winner is set to fly to Australia to continue her global Eras tour.