The Apocalypse Early Warning System by Kyle McDonald was built on the premise that rich folks will use their private jets to get out quick in case of a global emergency.
This site watches a fixed cohort of business jets and asks a simple question: is the number currently airborne unusual for this time? It is not tracking all aircraft. The original version used an FAA-only business-jet list. The current tracker builds a broader global aircraft metadata table by merging ADS-B Exchange aircraft records, Mictronics/tar1090 records, and FAA registry data by ICAO hex. The importer classifies metadata into business jets, military aircraft, large airliners, regional airliners, non-jet aircraft, and other known types, then applies a practical business-jet filter. Each tracked aircraft is matched in live data by its ICAO hex identifier.
I think this is only partially tongue-in-cheek? Data is updated every half hour and you can sign up for updates through Telegram or text.
