Elon Musk flies to Hawthorne after China trip during OpenAI trial

Elon Musk flew from Teterboro to Hawthorne on May 14, landing at Jack Northrop Field just after midnight aboard the Gulfstream G550 N272BG. The five-hour cross-country hop came two days after he returned from Beijing, where he had accompanied President Donald Trump on a state visit.

The same week Musk was in China, his lead counsel apologized to a federal jury in Oakland for his absence during closing arguments in the Musk-Altman trial, as reported by CNBC. Musk is suing OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman for allegedly abandoning the company's nonprofit mission. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers had placed Musk on recall status after his testimony, though it remains unclear whether he obtained permission to travel abroad, per NBC News.

The Hawthorne arrival is a familiar one: Musk's aerospace company SpaceX operates a major facility adjacent to the airport. The flight from Teterboro also fits a pattern of East Coast departures this week, including a May 13 trip from Los Angeles to New York, before the China journey.