Low-cost carrier Ryanair has been awarded more than US$284,000 (£217,000) in damages by a US district court, against a Twitter user who had threatened to commit a terrorist attack on one of its aircraft.

The tweet, posted in February 2016 under the handle @GunnexGod, 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”

Ryaanir obtained a number of subpoeanas from Twitter, enabling it to identify the user as a Brian Lake from Pennsylvania, and was awarded US$284,148 in damages, including punitive damages, by the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Ryanair welcomed the ruling, and in a statement the carrier’s spokesperson 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.”

ryanair.com