A ruling was made in the US District Court over a bomb threat posted anonymously on Twitter last year.
Ryanair has been awarded $284,148 (approximately €248,000) in damages in the United States District Court after a bomb threat from an anonymous Twitter user in relation to one of the airline’s planes last year.
Ryanair obtained a number of subpoenas from Twitter, which helped identify Brian Lake from Pennsylvania as the person responsible for posting the bomb threat in February 2016, using the handle @GunnexGod.
The tweet read, “Hello @Ryanair, you have 15 minutes before I commit the biggest terror attack the UK has ever seen on one of your planes. Be ready”. Ryanair filed extortion and defamation proceedings in the US earlier this year.
The US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania this week ruled in Ryanair’s favour and awarded $284,148 in damages (including punitive damages). Ryanair welcomed the ruling and reiterated that it will not allow any individual or group to threaten or impugn its industry leading safety record.
Commenting following the ruling in the United States District Court, Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said: “We welcome this US District Court ruling.
“The safety of our customers, people and aircraft is our number one priority and we will not allow anyone to impugn, threaten or undermine our 32-year unblemished safety record and will pursue any ‘anonymous’ social media offenders through the courts.”
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