A teenage girl's bomb threat joke on Twitter massively backfired when an airline told her it was taking her prank seriously.
On Sunday, Twitter user @QueenDemetriax_ wrote: "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' reply was brief and to the point: "Sarah, we take these threats very seriously. Your IP address and details will be forwarded to security and the FBI."
This resulted in the teenager clearly panicking and issuing a number of tweets to say she 'was kidding'.
She wrote: "I am f*****g 14 years old. Do they think I am gonna blow up a plane or something? I am just stupid, okay."
Clearly worried, she added: "OMG. Someone is knocking on the door. Maybe it is the FBI. OMG."
She also wrote later: "I need a lawyer. Any lawyers on here?"
Her tweets were quickly retweeted with the teenager gaining more than 30,000 followers.
The teenager, from the Netherlands, pleaded with the airline, saying she's never been to Afghanistan, writing: "What do you want from me?"
But the airline didn't reply, prompting the girl to write: "I'm so sorry I'm scared now. I was joking and it was my friend not me, take her IP address not mine."
After she gained more than 30,000 followers, 'Sarah' wrote: "I always wanted to be famous. But I meant like Demi Lovato famous, not Osama bin laden famous."
Both the American Airlines and Sarah's tweet were eventually deleted, and it is not exactly clear if any call to the FBI was ever made.
Spokeswoman Dori Alvarez told the New York Daily News: "We took it down basically because it generated a lot of traffic. We took it down so we could better focus on our customers."
Twitter wouldn't comment on the matter to the New York Post, but tweeted that 'only law enforcement can request private information about Twitter accounts.'
Sarah expressed remorse for the stunt, wondering aloud why she did it – but the she wrote: "I changed my name to Ibrahim."
It might be a while before she goes on holiday to the States, though!