Authorities clear two Atlanta planes after Twitter bomb threat

After officials received bomb threats on Twitter against two Atlanta flights that led to the planes being grounded, it has been revealed that the tweets were likely a hoax.

People reported that the FBI is in the middle of their investigation into the threats, which were made on Saturday. The two flights, Delta Airlines flight 1156 and Southwest Airlines flight 2492 were grounded at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

The Atlantic Journal-Constitution reported that the source of the threats were made from a Twitter user who sent the threats to the accounts for both Delta and Southwest. The tweets are no longer on the site.

At first, the bomb threats were said “to be credible,” according to Reese McCranie, who is a spokesman for the Hartsfield-Jackson airport.

The messages were reportedly made by a user called “King Zortic” and began with a message stating they “forgot which one” when claiming to have left a bomb on a plane.

Fighter jets were sent to escort the planes as they landed. Passengers from Delta evacuated before the ones from Southwest. However, authorities were unable to find evidence of any bombs being on the flights.

One passenger, Toni Ellingen, praised Southwest and officials for the way they handled the threat and she said passengers didn’t take the threat too seriously after discovering the source was via Twitter.

“I don’t think people really took it that seriously. There are so many people that are doing that now.”

The FBI is looking into who made the threat in the first place.

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