A UK man has been fined $1600 after sending a Twitter message in which he flippantly threatened to "blow an airport sky high".
Paul Chambers, 26, is said to be the first person in Britain to be convicted of a criminal offence on the microblogging site.
A court was told that the trainee accountant was frustrated that bad weather had disrupted his planned trip to Ireland from Robin Hood airport in England’s East Midlands.
So he tapped this message on his mobile: ‘Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high’.
An airport manager found the tweet during an unrelated computer search and alerted authorities.
A lawyer for Chambers called the episode a ‘Basil Fawlty’ outburst which was immature, tasteless and unacceptable - but not criminal.
