Someone used the location information on Sacco’s tweet to figure out just what part of the airline terminal she was in and what flights were leaving for the continent of Africa around the time, narrowing down the possible flights. It was determined that Sacco was likely on a flight headed for Cape Town, South Africa, landing at approximately 11:20 p.m. EST last night. And so, the internet waited for Justine to land, to see just how the world’s dumbest PR exec would handle learning just how much her life had changed in just a few hours.
I mean, I actually set my phone alarm for this.
At about 11:30 p.m. it became clear that those who determined which flight Sacco must be on were right, because shortly after that flight landed, Sacco’s offensive tweet was deleted. And then her account was suspended. Her Facebook came down. A number of fake accounts popped up after that, including one, @JustineSacco6, that it took awhile for many to grasp wasn’t the real Justine. Meanwhile, a Twitter user named @Zac_R, who said he lived nearby and had been watching the whole mess unfold, decided to wait for Sacco’s flight to deboard, curious if the whole thing was real or a hoax. At the terminal, he claimed to encounter Sacco’s father, who is allegedly South African, waiting for his daughter.
Sacco has not yet spoken out in an interview or apologized on any of her now-shuttered social media accounts. I suspect that Sacco will take an extended vacation in Africa and return to the U.S. with a new last name — perhaps her mother’s maiden name — on her resume, hopeful that this whole thing has blown over. Deleting all of her social media accounts without issuing a mea culpa seems like a bad PR move to me … especially for someone who’s paid to be an expert on such things.
The most positive thing to come out of this whole thing? Some savvy genius at @AidForAfrica registered the domain name for JustineSacco.com and set it up to accept donations for the anti-AIDS charity.
