Teens Taunt American Airlines With More Fake Bomb Threats After Arrest of 14-Year-Old Original Dutch Bomb Hoaxer
In a show of support to a 14-year-old Dutch girl who made a bomb threat joke to American Airlines, dozens of fellow teens are tweeting similar bomb jokes to the same air carrier.
However, there is no response yet if American Airlines or local police units would likewise track these Twitter members and have them arrested like Sarah.
On Sunday, using her Twitter handle @queenmetriax which has been suspended after the incident, Sarah tweeted, "Hello my name's Ibrahim and I'm from Afghanistan. I'm part of Al Qaida and on June 1st I'm gonna do something really big bye."
American Airlines replied within six months after the tweet came out, "Sarah, we take those threats very seriously. Your IP address and details will be forwarded to security and the FBI." While Sarah was joking, American Airlines was not and the next day, Sarah was arrested in Rotterdam.
However, The Netherlands-based news service BNO News said that her arrest was on Rotterdam police's own initiative, not upon the request of the air carrier or FBI as threatened by AA.
Actually, on the same day, Sarah admitted through tweets that she was just kidding and sorry for what she did. The teen also said she is now scared of the consequences of her joke gone bad.
But other teens, rather than being scared, appear to be testing the waters how would American Airlines react to similar online jokes.
Here are some samples of their tweets:
"@AmericanAir I have a bomb under the next plane to take off." - Army Jacket @ShyyLicious
"@AmericanAir You really seem to not care that I'm about to bomb your plane that's headed to Paris. Btw, my name is Ahmed." - demi @ddlovatosteddy
"@AmericanAir Hello, I'm Eduardo. ago a couple of weeks were warned, i' m ignored. you will pay the consequences. Bomb! HAHAHAHA" - Eduardo @eduardo37276391
"@AmericanAir @QueenDemetriax_Is it ok if I bomb your planes please? I asked politely." - Raw Spirit @sprtdabes
Commenting on the teen support for Sarah, The Washington Post blogger Caitlin Dewey pointed out that airlines "need to take threats seriously, no matter how silly they seem."
The consequence of such vigilance means many airline employees and law enforcement agencies would spend a lot of time tracking the creators of these bad jokes, while at the same time it destroy incentives for air carriers to engage customers on social media which seems to be "the only decent line of airline customer service left," Ms Dewey wrote.