Twitter Terror Takes to the Sky: Chicago-Bound Flight Threatened

By Dennis Robaugh (Patch National Staff)

A Chicago-bound flight from Los Angeles International Airport was searched Tuesday afternoon after the jet landed at O’Hare International Airport because of yet another Twitter-posted bomb threat. This was the fourth day in a row for tweeted bomb threats against airliners.

No bomb was found on the Chicago-bound flight American Airlines Flight 1192.

USA Today reports that the tweeted threat stated: “@AmericanAir No, There is a bomb on Flight 1192, We Are ISIS, we will (expletive) you guys up, #ISIS”

On Monday, bomb threats against Southwest flights originating in San Diego were made.

On Sunday, a Delta flight from L.A. to Orlando was diverted to Dallas because of an online threat.

And on Saturday, Chicago Police were dispatched to a Northwest Side home because of a tweet that threatened two flights, one Milwaukee-to-Atlanta Southwest flight and an Oregon-to-Atlanta Delta flight. NORAD scrambled F16s to escort those jetliners on Saturday.

Posted to Twitter by @kingZortic, authorities were given an address in the 4500 block of West Schubert Avenue and challenged to “come get me I got guns, COME AT ME.” After getting to the home, Chicago Police determined the individual who made the threats did not live at that address, according to Police News Affairs.

“All threats are taken seriously and will be investigated,” the FBI said in a statement.

NBC News is reporting that more than a dozen online threats have been made against jets, recently.

Insiders say the number of online threats posted against commercial flights is much higher and growing, according to USA Today.

“We’re seeing these new threats. In terms of the quantity of (online) threats we’re seeing now, you just haven’t seen it,” Glen Winn, former head of security at Northwest Airlines and United Airlines, told the paper.

Are they terrorists seeking serious disruption in our air travel and occupation of our crime-fighting resources or pranksters? As yet, none of these threats has led to the discovery of any bomb.

“In the history of aviation sabotage, I don’t believe there’s ever been a threat called in where there’s actually been a bomb,” Douglas Laird, a consultant and former security director at Northwest Airlines, told USA Today.

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