Kids with phones are causing flights to be GROUNDED – here’s how to stop them

A NUMBER of flights have been grounded in recent months due to kids – and yours could easily make the same mistake.

A number of incidents have caused flights to be evacuated, and some passengers even kicked off the flight, by jokes from young travellers via AirDrop.

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AirDrop, which lets people send images and notes between iPhones via Wifi, lets people communicate even if they don’t have each other’s numbers.

However, it can often be misused, such as to send explicit images to strangers.

In recent months, kids have been kicked off flights and forced planes to be grounded after for making threats to the plane, seeming to be trying to play a practical joke.

Last year, passengers on a United flight were evacuated after a teenager shared an image of an Airsoft gun to passengers via AirDrop.

And in March, a passenger on a flight sent a message threatening to hijack the plane via Airdrop, which resulted in armed police surrounding the plane.

It was eventually found to be a ten-year-old passenger, who was escorted from the plane with their mum.

Earlier this month passengers were AirDropped pictures of plane disasters, leading to one passenger having a panic attack and another fainted.

The pilot returned to the gate after crew made them aware, and police were called, who arrested nine passengers, all in their late teens.

Using AirDrop is easy for kids, meaning they could easily send images or messages with the click of the button, even if they don’t know who they are sending them to.

Most of the time it is harmless – people on social media have said they have been AirDropped anything from dogs to their mixtape.

The best way to avoid this is turning off your AirDrop during a flight, which can be switched off in the settings, or switched to Contacts Only.

However, there are no regulations in place to stop this happening – a flight attendant told the Telegraph there is “no protocol” in place despite cases where it is misused on the rise.

While airlines are rolling out WiFi on planes, passengers are still told to put phones on airplane mode during the flight.

One man didn’t and had a huge phone bill after his phone tried to connect to a network.

According to the Financial Review, the young traveller found himself $300 (£245) out of pocket because it connected to the plane’s in-flight network Aeromobile.

And if you drop your phone down the side of your seat during your flight, you must tell crew – as one man didn’t, only for it to set on fire.

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