Apple's Airdrop service was recently misused on board an airliner to cause a lot of trouble. This time a Pegasus flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul Sabiha Göckcen was affected.

On Monday evening, the passengers, who have mobile devices with a “bitten apple” on them, were harassed with unwanted images and videos during take-off preparations. These were sent via the Apple service Airdrop. The clips were quite aggressive and partly racially motivated.

For example, there was a man shooting at a shooting range and a masked man on a motorcycle. A picture was also sent out with the question “Are there Arabs on the plane?” distributed. According to the news portal Ynet, an Israeli citizen is said to be behind the harassment, who is said to have even distributed a photo of himself in the seat via Airdrop.

The cabin crew, who were informed immediately by the passengers, immediately contacted the captain and asked him for instructions on how to proceed. The commander then ordered that the machine would not take off for the time being and that the security authorities of Israel would be involved. This then led the suspect away, but this triggered a kind of tumult. The alleged troublemaker was out with several friends, who then turned out to be "unruly PAX" and caused quite a stir. But that didn't help, because there was a police "escort" from the Pegasus plane for them too.

After an hour, the passengers were screened

For all other passengers, it was now at least annoying, because the security authorities in Israel had decided that the Pegasus flight would initially be denied take-off permission. It was agreed with the captain that all passengers and luggage would be checked again as a precaution. The officials responsible saw a theoretically possible risk for flight safety in the aggressive and racist airdrop disturbances, because at that time it was by no means clear that the alleged disruptor was actually the originator. It is a well-known fact that the State of Israel leaves nothing to chance when it comes to flight safety and is the world's number one when it comes to checks and inspections. In addition, this was the fourth such incident at Tel Aviv Airport this year.

However, the security forces were in no hurry, as the order to exit the Pegasus plane was not issued until an hour after the incident. In the terminal, the passengers and their belongings were examined again and meticulously. Only then was there a green light for departure to Istanbul-SAW. So the airdrop incident caused a delay of several hours.

Airdrop incidents are increasing

Again and again this Apple service is misused to annoy other travelers who have smartphones from this manufacturer. As a rule, obscene photos and/or videos from the porn genre are sent. burst in the US therefore a captain's collar and he threatened that the flight would not be operated if the behavior was not stopped immediately. The four incidents in Tel Aviv involved aggressive or threatening videos and photos, which made it necessary for the security authorities to intervene for flight safety reasons.

What could possibly have been intended as a "joke" can have serious consequences, especially in Israel. "Pranksters" are often not aware that such behavior can be seen as an interference with aviation security and in almost every country in the world there are hefty penalties. For example, in the United States of America and the USA, you risk even long prison sentences.