Steve Jobs's private Gulfstream jet on the runway at TK. Photos reproduced with the kind permission of Rich Snyder. Jobs has blocked the FAA from officially tracking his jet’s flights (a routine request; some simple paperwork with the National Business Aviation Association). But his 15-seater Gulfstream 5 has a distinctive tail number — N2N — that makes it easy for aviation buffs to track its movements on the Internet. And while it looks like he flew to Memphis on March 23, possibly for a liver transplant — as CNBC claims to have independently confirmed — his jet made many more flights in April. Worldwide, there are scores of plane geeks who track messages sent via the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), an automated system that transmits airplane status messages to other aircraft and ground stations. It’s the same system that investigators are using to piece together the final moments of Air France 447, which crashed off the coast of Brazil earlier this month. The messages are unencrypted and easily intercepted with an aviation scanner — the aerospace equivalent of a police scanner. Attach the scanner to a PC, and the status messages can be automatically uploaded to internet databases. A search of Acarsd.org, a database that aggregates messages from hundreds of scanners connected to the Internet, shows that Jobs’s jet was in the air of March 23. It reported its position to the east of Modesto, CA. “The aircraft could have been eastbound at that point,” says Carl Howe, an analyst with Yankee Group and a former pilot who searched the Acarsd.org database to produce a report of the jet’s movements for the last 6 months (See below). “If it were the case, the next time the aircraft logs time is on April 5, about two weeks later,” says Howe. “Anything is possible, but that seems like a pretty fast turnaround for a liver transplant; there’s more activity in April though.” Jobs’ plane was busy in April, logging five flights that month — the most movements the plane has made in the last six months. And it looks like Jobs’s jet made three flights close together in late April, arriving or departing from San Jose on April 21, 23 and 27. The ACARS records on those dates contain Gear-up messages (Message label 12), and position reporting messages (Message label 15), which include latitude and longitude, as indicated by the N and W markers. For example, on April 21, the jet reported its location at N37.112, W121.444, which is just south of San Jose, CA. There are similar latitude and longitude markers for flight son the 23 and 27. “Jobs was doing something then,” says Howe. “We just don’t know what.” In addition, interception of ACARS transmissions isn’t perfect. Only a percentage of all messages are captured by hobbyists. However, the system makes it hard to keep the movements of planes secret, especially when they’re leaving an electronic data trail. The CIA’s extraordinary rendition program was uncovered by hobbyist planespotters. “Some of these seemingly obscure hobbies can be pretty good sources of hard data,” says Howe. Plane buff Rich Snyder, who snapped Jobs’s jet in April, said airplane photographers use flight trackers like FlightAware to see what’s arriving at the airport they’re shooting at. “N2N has been blocked on Flightaware per request, probably by Jobs,” says Snyder. “So, if you catch his jet, it’s a pretty nice score!” Here’s Howe’s data for Jobs’s Gulfstream N2N for the last six months: Data from http://www.acarsd.org/acars_search.html for Gulfstream ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: N2N [Gulfstream GLF5] ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: N2N [Gulfstream GLF5] ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: N2N [Gulfstream GLF5] ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: N2N [Gulfstream GLF5] ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: N2N [Gulfstream GLF5] ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: N2N [Gulfstream GLF5] ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: N2N [Gulfstream GLF5] ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: N2N [Gulfstream GLF5] ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: N2N [Gulfstream GLF5] ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: N2N [Gulfstream GLF5] |
1
Votes
Votes
Tracking Steve Jobss Private Jet Over the Internet
Posted By cultofmac on Jun 22, 2009 FROM: feedproxy.google.com report abuse
Post new comment