British man found not guilty in trial for bomb hoax on London-Spain flight

A British man, Aditya Verma, has been cleared of public disorder by a Spanish court after he made a joke to his friends about blowing up a flight from London Gatwick to Menorca. Verma admitted that he sent a message to his friends on Snapchat in July 2022 saying, "On my way to blow up the plane. I'm a member of the Taliban." However, he claimed that it was a private joke and he never intended to cause public distress. The court in Madrid ruled that there was no evidence of any real threat and that Verma should be cleared of any wrongdoing. The incident occurred when Verma's Snapchat message was picked up by UK security services, who then alerted Spanish authorities while the EasyJet plane was still in the air. As a result, two Spanish F-18 fighter jets were sent to accompany the aircraft until it landed in Menorca and was searched. Verma was arrested upon arrival and spent two days in a Spanish police cell before being released on bail. During the trial, it was questioned how the message got out, as Snapchat is an encrypted app. One theory suggested that it could have been intercepted through Gatwick's Wi-Fi network, but the airport denied having such capability. The judge's resolution stated that the message was captured by English security mechanisms for unknown reasons when the plane was flying over French airspace. In the judge's ruling, it was emphasized that Verma's message was sent in a strictly private environment and it was not reasonable for him to assume that it could be intercepted or detected by authorities or anyone other than his friends. The judgment also mentioned that it was unclear how UK authorities were alerted to the message, as they were not part of the trial's evidence. Snapchat declined to comment on the specific case but stated on its website that it works with law enforcement to escalate threats to life or respond to emergency disclosure requests.