Girl Tweets Mock Threat At American Airlines, Gets Arrested

Airlines take security very seriously, even more so after 9/11. They certainly don’t take threats lightly, in fact, they report them to the FBI. That’s what American Airlines did when a 14-year old Dutch Twitter user fired a tweet to AA’s account, claiming she was from Afghanistan, a part of “Al Qaida” and that on “June 1st I’m gonna do something really big.” AA’s account promptly replied that they take these threats very seriously, and that her IP address and details would be forwarded to security and the FBI.

She might have intended it as a joke but American Airlines certainly didn’t see humor in the situation. What followed was an endless series of tweets from said Dutch user, @queendemetriax, apologizing for what she had said and that she really was just a 14-year old girl. She might have taught herself a very costly life lesson, that actions do have consequences. Rotterdam Police has confirmed that the girl has been arrested following her American Airlines threat, and that investigation is currently ongoing.

Twitter has suspended the girl’s account, which became quite popular following the exchange with American Airlines. Between apologizing and trying to make amends, she tweeted that he follower count had ballooned from 11K in three hours to more than 24K. Do you think AA did the right thing by reporting her to the authorities, or should they have let it slide because technically she isn’t even an adult yet?

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Web
Tags: american airlines, Twitter