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#Elon Musk plane’s 9-minute, 35-mile flight sparks outrage

“Elon Musk plane’s 9-minute, 35-mile flight sparks outrage”

Elon Musk’s private jet flew from San Jose to San Francisco — a 35-mile flight that lasted a total of nine minutes, according to Twitter users who track the tech mogul’s movements.

The super-short flight across San Francisco Bay took place on May 6, but Twitter users widely shared the satellite map showing the plane’s flight path over the weekend, with many expressing outrage over the carbon footprint left behind by the head of an electric car company.

“Elon Musk took a 9 minute flight to San Francisco from San Jose, which is 5 stops on Caltrain,” tweeted Hayden Clarkin, referring to a local commuter rail that connects San Francisco with cities to its south along the Bay.

“I literally have no words.”

According to the map, Musk’s plane flew some 35 miles from San Jose International Airport to San Francisco International Airport. By car, it would be a 40-minute drive depending on traffic.

Ken Klippenstein posted a tweet juxtaposing the map of the short flight path with a message from Musk in which he wrote: “Tesla exists to help reduce the risk of catastrophic climate change, which affects all species on Earth.”

A Twitter account dedicated to tracking Musk's flights posted the flight map online.
A Twitter account dedicated to tracking Musk’s flights posted the flight map online.
Twitter

“Even if your faith in humanity is faltering, this is worth caring about,” Musk tweeted in 2018.

“Support makes a difference. Thank you.”

New York Times editor and CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin offered an alternative explanation.

“The plane was likely just being ‘repositioned’ — as in the plane was sitting at one airport and then was moved to a different airport to pick up its passengers,” Sorkin tweeted.

“This happens all the time. Planes often sit at a less busy airport and then fly to another one close by.”

Sorkin didn’t convince some on Twitter. One commenter wrote: “Lol dude that’s still an insanely short and wasteful flight, carrying passengers or not. Hilarious you see it as your job to defend the absurd excesses of billionaires.”

Last year, Jack Sweeney, a tech-savvy 19-year-old college student, founded the Twitter account @ElonsJet, which gives regular updates on flights taken by the world’s richest human on his private plane.

Musk, who said that the site was a security risk, was so alarmed by Sweeney’s Twitter account that he contacted the student last year and offered him $5,000 to take it down.

“I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase,” Musk wrote to Sweeney in a private message.

Sweeney turned down the $5,000 offer. He then demanded $50,000 from the Tesla chief.

After considering the offer, Musk said he didn’t “feel right” to pay to shut down the account. Eventually, he stopped responding.

In addition to his duties as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk is also the founder and chief executive of The Boring Company, a tunnel-digging firm which creates “loop” projects for underground car travel.

Musk started the firm after he grew tired of the traffic in Los Angeles.

The tech mogul is also locked in a legal fight with Twitter after the social media company sued him for trying to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy out its shareholders and take the firm private.

It is unclear if Musk was on the Bay Area flight. The above image shows Musk getting off his private jet in February.
It is unclear if Musk was on the Bay Area flight. The above image shows Musk getting off his private jet after landing in Los Angeles in February.
Diggzy/Jesal/Shutterstock

Last month, several celebrities came under fire for using private jets to take short flights even while publicly declaring their support for combating climate change.

Kylie Jenner, the social media influencer and reality television star, was deemed a “climate criminal” online after she boasted of taking private jets for short, three-minute flights for trips that most people would make by car in around 45 minutes.

Other A-list stars who have been flagged online for excessive use of private planes include Taylor Swift, Floyd Mayweather, Jay-Z, Alex Rodriguez, Blake Shelton, Steven Spielberg, Mark Wahlberg, and Oprah Winfrey.

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