First came the grisly crime scene photos, sent to several panicked passengers Friday on Hawaiian Airlines Flight 23. Then came the pepper spray.
A 15-year-old girl sharing a grisly mock crime scene photo from one of her high school classes with her mother caused the Maui-bound flight to return to its gate at Oakland Airport Friday morning when the photo accidentally went out to other passengers, authorities said.
The flight eventually took off and was set to land safely in Hawaii when a can of pepper spray went off inside, requiring emergency help for several people aboard, Hawaiian Airlines said.
Twelve passengers and three flight attendants were treated for respiratory issues and released by emergency responders at the airport in Kahului, Hawaii, airline spokesman Alex Da Silva said.
A passenger illegally brought the pepper spray on the plane and it apparently discharged accidentally, Da Silva said in a statement. The airline could not provide any details about the passenger or why officials believe the release was accidental.
The flight crew of the Boeing 767 declared an emergency to get priority to land at the airport in Hawaii. The plane carried 256 passengers and 10 crew members.
Nicholas Andrade said he and his fiancée were trying to take a nap in their seats just behind first class when the problems began.
“I was woken up by someone having a coughing fit. But what I came to find out is that it wasn’t one person coughing, it was many people coughing. And then everyone was coughing and then we were coughing. And the flight attendants were covering their faces and passengers started covering their faces,” he said.
People had trouble breathing and were shouting.
“People were definitely panicked,” he said.
Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said in an email that her agency and Maui police are investigating.
She said the canister held about 1.5 ounces. The fine for bringing pepper spray onto an airplane can reach $1,960 or higher, Farbstein said.
Meanwhile, the teenager who accidentally shared the mock crime scene photos and her mother were not allowed to continue on when the flight to Maui finally departed about 90 minutes late. They were instead rebooked on a flight for Hawaii on Saturday, Oakland Airport spokeswoman Keonnis 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 mistakenly 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.”
The Associated Press contributed.