Update: The same flight experienced a medical emergency when pepper spray was released. Fifteen people received treatment upon arrival in Maui.
OAKLAND — A 15-year-old girl sharing a grisly mock crime scene photo from one of her high school classes with her mother caused a Hawaii-bound flight to return to the gate Friday morning when the photo went out to other passengers, authorities said.
The teenager and her mother were not allowed to continue on when Hawaiian Airlines Flight 23 to Maui finally departed about 90 minutes late, Oakland Airport spokeswoman Keonnis Taylor said. They instead were rebooked on a flight for Hawaii on Saturday, she said.
The flight had pushed back from the gate when the pilot made the decision to turn it around, Taylor said.
Authorities, who originally said the two passengers were college students majoring in criminal justice and sharing multiple pictures from a class, did not identify them. They were questioned and released by Alameda County Sheriff’s Office deputies. They determined no crime had been committed, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said.
Deputies first received reports about the incident around 7:20 a.m. Kelly said the girl used her phone’s AirDrop app to send a mock crime scene photo of a body used in her med-biology class to her mom sitting next to her. AirDrop is a feature that allows Macs and iOS devices to share files.
But by using the method, the files also can end up on other nearby phones — in this case, the phones of other passengers, Kelly said. Those passengers alerted flight attendants, who showed the image to the pilots.
The captain made the decision to notify authorities and return to the gate, Kelly said.
“Given the circumstances, everyone did the right thing,” Kelly said, adding that he’d never heard of anything similar happening on a flight. “The girl had good intentions, but other passengers saw it as a threat. People were being highly vigilant.”
Kelly said the two “were obviously embarrassed about what occurred and they did not mean to inconvenience other passengers.”
Deputies were waiting for the two when the plane returned to the gate, Kelly said. Once they learned the details of what happened, they were released.
The sheriff’s office will file an incident report with federal officials, but the agency sees no reason the two should be restricted from flying, Kelly said.
“I imagine they will think twice about AirDropping photos,” Kelly said. “Especially on an airplane.”