Robert Tyler Wicks, of Decatur, Alabama, admitted in federal court Friday that he sent bomb-threat texts to American Airlines employees and called Bangor International Airport’s switchboard, WABI-TV reported. The case involved threats made in February 2025 and a long-distance relationship with an airline employee.
The reported threats were made on Feb. 13 and 14, 2025. The Bangor Daily News reported that Wicks texted American Airlines employees and called the airport switchboard. WABI-TV said he used video calls with an airline employee to watch law enforcement and airline staff respond.
Messages and Calls in the Case
In earlier coverage, the Bangor Daily News reported that court records showed Wicks sent 107 messages to two American Airlines employees on Feb. 13, 2025. The messages described plans to “definitely do a bomb (bomb emoji) threat” at the airport the following day at 10:50 a.m. The report said he called the airport around 5 a.m. on Feb. 14 and claimed bombs had timers and that one was outside the building.
The Bangor Daily News also reported that Wicks called the FBI, described the threats “as a prank” for Discord, and separately told Washington Dulles International Airport that a bomb would explode in 15 minutes. The report linked him to a mobile app he allegedly used to place calls from his phone under a different number, initially obscuring his identity from investigators.
The Relationship That Started on TikTok
The airline employee told police she was in a long-distance relationship with a man she met on TikTok and knew as Trey Live; investigators identified him as Wicks, the Bangor Daily News reported. The paper said he used the relationship to obtain contact information for other airline employees and, during video calls, to watch law enforcement and airline personnel react to the threats.
Federal, Local and National Guard Response
Authorities brought in the FBI, Federal Air Marshals Service, Bangor Police Department and Army National Guard, according to the Bangor Daily News. The threats delayed flights on Feb. 13 and 14. The outlet’s report on the guilty plea said Wicks admitted to making the threats when investigators interviewed him.
The federal docket tracked by CourtListener records Wicks’s arrest in the District of Alabama on May 21, 2025, and the filing of a one-count indictment on June 11, 2025. He later pleaded guilty; sentencing is still pending.
What Comes Next
Wicks faces up to five years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release, the Bangor Daily News reported. He will be sentenced at a later date, according to WABI-TV, though no hearing date has been made public. Coverage of the case has given differing ages for Wicks — 23 in reporting from June 2025 and 25 in coverage from September 2026 — a discrepancy that remains unresolved in the record.
What Public Threat Data Shows
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security fact sheet says swatting calls and hoax threats occur daily across the country, but that statement is not specific to airports. The fact sheet does not provide airport-specific counts or describe the contents or limits of a comparable airport-threat dataset, so it does not establish how often such threats affect U.S. airports.
The case adds to a string of costly hoaxes that have tied up airports, security personnel and flights over what investigators describe as an online relationship gone wrong. For now, the only confirmed outcome is Wicks's guilty plea; how much prison time, if any, he ultimately receives will depend on a sentencing hearing that has yet to be scheduled.
