Crash survivor Twitters from burning plane (false)

Geek micro-blogged from safety

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Mobile, 24th December 2008 14:22 GMT

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Having survived a plane crash the first thing most people might do is phone their loved ones, or run straight to the nearest bar for a stiff drink. Mike Wilson became a notable in social networking by deciding to Twitter instead after coming through unscathed from a brush with death.

Wilson was a passenger of a Continental Airlines jet that skidded off the runaway in Denver airport on Saturday after failing to make it off the ground in icy conditions. The Houston-bound Boeing 737 plane then caught fire. All 155 passengers and crew made it out alive though some were injured.

Having safely escaped the plane, Wilson (@2drinksbehind) began relaying his experiences through the micro-blogging site via text messages updates sent by his mobile. He posted a picture of the crash site and complained about not been able to get a drink after passengers were escorted to Continental airlines VIP area.

At times the string of Tweets by the software engineer reads like dialogue from cult comedy film Airplane!. "You have your wits scared out of you, drag your butt out of a flaming ball of wreckage and you can't even get a vodka-tonic. Boo," Wilson writes.

"This was crash #2 for me. Maybe I should start taking the bus."

And.

"Thanks for all the well wishes everyone. Sorry for the radio silence, but my battery died in the middle of all this and I just made it home."

Blimey. Crash number one, we later learn, was a water landing involving a small plane.

On reading the story our first instinct was that the whole thing might a put-on or art project but Wilson has since popped up on NBC News and Fox to relate his experiences and clarify that he didn't actually Tweet from inside a burning plane.

Which is a relief.

Wilson and the other passengers on the plane eventually made it to Houston in a replacement plane a day later than expected. ®

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