This is how the Louis Vuitton CEO manipulates flighttrackers to make bogus flighttracks

Bernard Arnault, the Second Richest Person in the World, Manipulates Flight Trackers to Hide His Private Jet

Some CEOs prefer not to have the movements of their private aircraft tracked by flight tracking websites. There are several reasons for this. To prevent an aircraft from being displayed on popular platforms like Flightradar24 (FR24), a request can be submitted to FR24 to have it hidden. Another method is using ICAO’s Privacy ICAO Address (PIA) programme, which assigns the aircraft a temporary ICAO hex code that cannot be directly linked to its registration.

While these methods help obscure flight paths from the general public, determined individuals can still trace them with some effort. For instance, Elon Musk’s jet uses a PIA hex ID, but because the ID wasn’t changed frequently, users were able to guess and uncover the flight paths.

Bernard Arnault — founder, chairman, and CEO of LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), the world’s largest luxury goods company — was unhappy that his jet could be tracked. As the second wealthiest person on Earth, he reportedly decided to sell his private Bombardier Global 7500, registered in France as F-GVMA, and began chartering jets instead. The aircraft was sold to K5 Aviation, a German private jet operator, and re-registered as D-AGLO.

Since the sale, the aircraft’s tracks on flight tracking sites have shown unusual routes. Although the plane appeared in the software’s logs, it was never observed landing at or departing from the airports indicated. Even air traffic control (ATC) recordings did not match these reported movements. A user on the Dutch planespotting forum Scramble.nl noted that the tracks of D-AGLO were manipulated.

This manipulation is possible because websites like ADSBexchange rely on so-called feeders — individuals or organizations who transmit ADS-B data they receive to the platform. Using software tools, it is possible to simulate a false flight path, making it appear that an aircraft flew somewhere it never actually did. Websites such as ADSBexchange, adsb.fi, airplanes.live, and theairtraffic.com display these manipulated routes.

Only ADSB.lol shows the accurate flight paths of this aircraft. According to its data, the jet is a frequent visitor to Paris Le Bourget Airport, near LVMH’s headquarters, and Munich, where the aircraft is based.