VANCOUVER — It was a tense few hours for airline passengers arriving in Vancouver from Edmonton Friday, as Mounties boarded the plane asking who had used AirDrop to send out an alleged photo of a bomb.
Richmond RCMP Cpl. Dennis Hwang confirmed Saturday that shortly before midnight there was a security breach involving “an individual on this flight receive[ing] electronic communications on their mobile device of a possible threat.”
Police were called out to investigate Flair Airlines flight 2799 landing at YVR.
According to a Row 27 passenger on board, who has asked not to be identified in connection with the alleged threat, the ordeal was “very scary.”
She recalled three Mounties boarding the plane a few hours after it landed on the taxiway around 11:44 p.m.
The officers immediately approached a young man near Row 11, according to Vancouver’s Jesse Boyk, who was also on the flight.
“They were talking to the guy about Airdrop,” Apple’s wireless file-sharing facility, Boyk said. “One of the cops asked him to show them his phone.”
Another officer paced the aisles, asking passengers who had sent or received an AirDrop file about a bomb being on the plane, both passengers confirmed.
Before RCMP cleared the plane and passengers were unloaded at 2:15 a.m., they were told little about the unfolding security concern.
“The pilot came on and told three announcements which were basically all the same,” recalled the Row 27 passenger. “He said, ‘We are investigating a security threat … We need to follow what the RCMP instructs … Thank you for your patience’.”
Mounties eventually told passengers Apple was being contacted to trace the digital correspondence, Boyk said. “It was all very surprising.”
RCMP is still investigating the incident, with the “Number 1 consideration for charges being the uttering of threats,” said Hwang. The maximum punishment for the conviction is five years in prison.
“However, if in the investigation we determine it’s not in the public interest to pursue the charges or there is not sufficient evidence, we will not pursue.”
The officer also pointed to the power that airlines themselves have in penalizing passengers who carry out similar disruptions.
“The airline itself can decide to enact a lifetime ban on a person who is behind the AirDrop threat,” said Hwang. “These things not only put safety at risk, but it also costs companies a lot of time and money when a flight is delayed.”
Similar reports have seen AirDrop used to send unsolicited threats to strangers in Canada since the feature was first introduced in 2011. In March, an Air Canada flight to Montreal was cancelled after some passengers received images via AirDrop, one of which was a cartoon bomb about to explode.
Although the security threat was ultimately deemed non-credible, the messages were enough to cause panic on the plane.
While Apple users can decide to accept or decline an image when it is sent wirelessly, the request includes an image preview that users see before responding.
However, the unwanted sharing of files and pictures via AirDrop can be turned off if users change their iPhone’s default settings to “Receiving Off.”
