Pranks can also spiral out of control and have serious consequences!
The function of AirDrop is clear: share any type of file between iPhone, iPad and Mac in seconds. Taking advantage of this convenience, many users use it as their favorite tool for pranks, of course in bad taste. But so far, none as alarming as the one you are about to discover.
A student a few days ago thought that for some reason it would be funny to stream a fake bomb threat on an American Airlines plane who was preparing to fly to Texas, causing chaos at the airport.
A joke with no fun
According to information shared by 9to5mac, a Pennsylvania student returning home from a Catholic school-sponsored mission trip to the Texas-Mexico border changed the name of his iPhone to “I have a bomb”. He then shared a photo of AirDrop with other passengers on board the flight as he taxied before takeoff.
What the passengers received was a notification saying “I have a bomb, I would like to share a photo” with no way to identify where the message came from.
Before the alert, the plane was immediately pulled off the runway and flown back to a gate where a bomb squad searched the passengers and cargo for explosives. The FBI determined there were “no known credible threats” after the search. And after further investigation, they identified the young man responsible.
Even if the joker admitted his responsibility and apologized for the fact, currently is in juvenile detentionafter El Paso County officials file a false alarm or report complaint.
Limit jokes in AirDrop
Among the AirDrop configuration options, there is an option that allows you to limit the receipt of content only for contacts, if you have it enabled. With which, only users that we have added as contacts can send us files, and thus forget practical jokes.
Besides, with the release of iOS 16.2 Apple extended the “Everyone” option could only be activated for 10 minutesremoving the ability to always have AirDrop enabled for “Everyone”.
Although the precedents reduce the possibility of receiving this type of jokes, simply disabling the AirDrop option would totally eliminate this possibilitybut it’s usually not an option most want to do without.
