The captain of a Turkish AnadoluJet aborted take-off at Israel’s main airport after passengers received some mysterious texts containing images of a plane crash to their phones.
Authorities said the plane was taxiing at Ben Gurion Airport when the incident took place.
After take-off was aborted, passengers and staff were removed from the plane, and the luggage was reinspected.
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Several young Israeli passengers were identified as suspects and are being questioned.
The plane eventually took off after a five-hour delay.
The flight with 160 passengers on board was on its way to the take-off position when people alerted crew members to what they had received.
The captain then decided to return to the terminal.
The Hebrew Ynet news site reported that the images were AirDropped to passengers. The Apple service allows users to send files and images to other Apple devices within a specific range.
The images reportedly were of a Turkish Airlines plane that crashed in 2009 in the Netherlands and another crash in the USA in 2013, according to Ynet.
Passengers were notified that they could reboard the flight heading to Istanbul or were given the option to remain in Israel.
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