How do you know which of those 10,000 airplanes is Elon Musk's jet?

I've searched for "Elon Musk jet callsign" but apart from the mentioned twitter account, I couldn't easily find out which one it was.

> apart from the mentioned twitter account

The one covered in the NYT (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/technology/elon-musk-jet-...), Musk has publicly tweeted about (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1589414958508691456), offered $50k to remove (https://www.protocol.com/elon-musk-flight-tracker), and of a plane registered to "Falcon Landing LLC" at "1 Rocket Road, Hawthorne CA" (https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/Search/NNumberResul...)?

C'mon. We know it's his jet.

> C'mon. We know it's his jet.

Yes, we know. Because of the twitter account.

My point is that it would be much harder to know which airplane is Elon's jet if it weren't for the twitter account.

Which goes to the gp's point that even if the data is public, making it easily accessible increases Elon's personal safety risk.

That said, the NYT story does seem to make my point a bit moot. In any case, I wasn't aware of that story, and it didn't come up when I searched for "Elon Musk jet callsign".

Although I would guess a determined attacker could find it out given sufficient research.

> Although I would guess a determined attacker could find it out given sufficient research.

You don't have to be determined; a college freshman on a lark found Musk, Gates, etc. and made Twitter accounts. This information is intentionally public; you can browse recent plane registrations at https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/Search/RecentRegist..., export it to CSV, with full name and address of each owner.

I get a text message whenever my dad is seen in the air.

@elonjet isn't the problem here. (IMO, there isn't a problem.)

I don't see Elon's plane marked.

It's not in the air right now.

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a835af

Ok, so now that you gave me the callsign, it IS effectively marked.

Publishing someone's personal jet callsign should be treated similar to publishing someone's license plate number, phone number, or home address.

And an organization like Twitter should have clear policies on that.

The Federal Aviation Administration publishes this data openly. So, no.

https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/Search/NNumberResul...

Interesting. I am surprised there is a "name" field. It has some random holding company ... but if you're an individual not playing the shell game, are you required to put your actual name there? Or is there an option not to?

If you own an aircraft as an individual then your actual name must be listed.

Wow, ok. You really can search by people's first name and last name, and tail numbers come up. I'm surprised. I just assumed it was like license plate numbers; my bad.

The Senate Majority Leader's phone number is (202) 224-6542. Biden's home address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Should posting those be actionable?

Musk is a public figure, using public airspace, with a legally required ADS-B device that broadcasts its location, altitude, etc. to the public.

Yikes, people. I didn't say twitter should ban posting license plates and airplane tail numbers, I was just saying those things are pretty equivalent and there should be a clear policy on it that is followed consistently.

And now I realize they aren't equivalent, because FAA publishes owner names for tail numbers, unlike license plate and VIN numbers. I'm surprised.