Southwest Airlines passenger AirDrops nude photo to other fliers

Southwest Airlines passenger AirDrops nude photo to other fliers (Loren Elliott/Reuters)

The pilot of a Southwest Airlines flight threatened to cancel takeoff after someone on the plane sent a naked photograph to other passengers.

The incident, involving Apple's AirDrop file transfer service, involved a flight from Houston's William P. Hobby Airport to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

"So here's the deal, if this continues while we're on the ground I'm going to have to pull back to the gate, everybody's going to have to get off, we're going to have to get security involved and ... vacation is going to be ruined," the pilot could be heard saying in a video that's been seen about 2.7 million times on TikTok.

"So you folks, whatever that AirDrop thing is, quit sending naked pictures and let's get yourself to Cabo."

Passenger Teighlor Marsalis shot the video and told CNN that she and her friends had just boarded the plane when she and the people around her received notification of files being shared via AirDrop.

Marsalis said she had declined the file, but two women in front of her accepted it and showed her the photo.

"It was a nude man that had AirDropped himself to everyone," she said.

Marsalis said she saw another woman get upset by the photos and report what was happening to a flight attendant.

A flight attendant went to tell the pilot what had happened, and Marsalis said she started taking video because she thought something was going to happen.

"The safety, security and wellbeing of customers and employees is the Southwest team's highest priority at all times. When made aware of a potential problem, our employees address issues to support the comfort of those traveling with us," Southwest Airlines said in statement.

Marsalis said the pilot was really professional about it and handled the situation well.

A flight attendant went around to check on everyone and after about ten minutes, the crew went through its safety procedures and they took off.

She said nothing else happened on the flight.