"Holy f------ s--- I was just in a plane crash," he wrote in a text
message shortly after Continental Flight 1404 burst into flames and nearly
broke apart, injuring 38 people.
Thirty-two minutes later, Mr Wilson added: "Ugh... My glasses fell off in
the mass exodus getting off the plane... Can't see very well."
One minute after that, he offered a bit of lightness, perhaps conscious that
worried family members might be reading his words: "This was crash No 2
for me. Maybe I should start taking the bus".
More than three million people use Twitter worldwide, and the site has been
used increasingly to spread news ahead of traditional media. Last month "Tweeters"
spread live news about the Mumbai attacks.
But safety should come before the desire to Twitter. On Monday, Mr Wilson was
careful to say: "Just to clarify, I was NOT tweeting from inside a
burning plane. My first tweet wasn't sent until I was safely away from the
plane."
