MYSTERY FLIGHTS: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Private Jets

Georgia Gee -

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In this edition of Whale Hunting, you’re reading Mystery Flights, our biweekly feature where we track the planes and jets of the world’s most powerful in collaboration with Dictator Alert. The flights raise many questions about where dictators and their governments are going. Feel free to reach out with context that could further unravel these journeys.

Hello and welcome back to Mystery Flights. This week, we’re looking at the national scandal that erupted after the youngest son of the Indonesian president took one too many private jet shopping trips.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will relinquish power later this month, and has come under fire for attempting to hastily build a political dynasty in order to retain influence after he leaves office. His eldest son, Gibran, will be sworn in as vice president after a minimum age requirement was dispensed with.

Jokowi’s youngest son, Kaesang Pangarep, also features in these succession plans. Kaesang, who runs a wildly popular YouTube channel and is the proprietor of a (not-so-successful) chain of banana-themed restaurants, is being floated as a possible mayoral candidate in three different cities. Last year, only two days after he announced that he was joining a Jokowi-allied political party, Kaesang was made its chairman — despite having no prior experience in politics.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Kaesang would be summoned by the KPK, Indonesia’s corruption watchdog, over his use of a private jet during a trip to the U.S in August.

A few days later, the KPK canceled the summoning order. But in an apparent show of good faith, Kaesang went to the KPK’s offices and said that he initially planned to take a commercial flight, but then decided to “hitchhike” on a friend’s private jet.

Jokowi’s allies in government came to Kaesang’s rescue, too: Information and Technology Minister Budi Arie Setiadi made a statement claiming that Kaesang used the private jet because his wife was pregnant. Budi Arie asked reporters outside Parliament: “How can she take public planes?” (Emphasis ours.)