UK Edition
Panic as Turkish Airlines passengers sent pictures of plane crashes moments before take-off
One traveller faints and another is left in hysterics after ominous images sent to their phones as flight was about to take off
A flight was grounded after passengers received images from plane crashes on their phone as they waited to take off.
As the Turkey-bound plane was taxiing for take-off from Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport, images of burnt-out and crashed aeroplanes popped up on passengers’ phones, causing panic. Someone on board alerted flight attendants and the captain brought the plane back to the terminal.
After the captain reported the incident to airport security, the flight was grounded and all luggage and passengers were reinspected by security teams, according to a statement from Israel’s Airport Authority (IAA).
The IAA said 160 passengers were on the Anadolu Jet flight, a subsidiary of Turkish Airlines, when some of those on board received images depicting various historic plane crashes, including a 2009 Turkish Airline flight to the Netherlands, in which nine people were killed as the plane crashed on landing, breaking into three pieces.
Another image from 2013 showed the wreckage of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 from Incheon International Airport in South Korea, which crashed as it landed in San Francisco, killing three people and injuring nearly 200.
The passengers received the photos via AirDrop, according to the IAA, which is a software synced with iPhones, enabling images and files to be sent and received to those with Apple devices nearby.
The perpetrator has not yet been identified, though the IAA said some people on board were removed and taken for questioning by security officials, on suspicion of distributing the images.
One passenger who spoke to Israel Hayom, a local newspaper, described how as the plane started to move, panic arose as one person fainted and another had a panic attack, on seeing the images.
The incident comes just two weeks after another strange event at Ben Gurion Airport, when chaos ensued after a family of American tourists attempted to board a plane with an unexploded artillery shell picked up from a visit to the Occupied Golan Heights as a souvenir.