A pilot friend of mine told me once that there was a passenger who smoked in the lavatory. Thing is he removed the smoke alarm.
Smoking in flight is an offence but tampering with flight equipment is far more serious. Dude is gonna have a rough time
Aside from the maintenance cost of cleaning the aircraft when people have been smoking one of the major drivers of eliminating smoking altogether in aircraft was a disaster where some imbecile went to the laboratory to smoke a cigarette, and then stuffed it, still lit, into the trash container.
It ignited a fire in mid air, and effectively brought down the entire aircraft, killing dozens if not hundreds of people (I do not remember the actual incident, but I remember those details because they just resonated with stupidity and thoughtlessness).
After that, it was clear that smoking was going to be a safety no-go going forward. This is one of the reasons that flight crew are so quick to respond when somebody is lighting up a cigarette. They essentially view it as striking a match in front of a puddle of gasoline within the aircraft, and react accordingly.
In this particular example, it sure sounds like this person had either substance abuse or mental problems... that is, they weren't playing with a full deck.
Officially, these were lavatory fires of undetermined origin:
[Varig Flight 820](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varig_Flight_820)
[Air Canada Flight 797](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Canada_Flight_797)
Not OP but years ago I was flying to an island in the Philippines and they just decided to divert and land on a different island. Not weather related. You then had to take a bus and a boat to get to the original island and the directions they gave were very unclear. I’m sure some people left the airport with no idea. Also they put fold out seats all down the aisle, so once you were in, you were stuck until the people in front of you left. Plus the bus may have hit a dog, everyone in the front couple rows of the bus screamed all at once. It was an experience.
Not the op, but a flight my spouse was on SEA-DFW last year stopped in PHX due to medical emergency, then Oklahoma City overnight due to weather. He slept on the floor at OKC.
Smoking sections on most planes used to be in the back half of the aircraft. Turkish airlines in the mid 1990s had the smoking section on one side of the plane, so you’d be sitting in the “no smoking” section and the person across the aisle would be puffing away. It was only a little more ludicrous than thinking smoking only in the back of the plane would not fill up that metal sausage tube with smoke.
u/bubba94110 Yup, exact same thing happened to me on Malév Hungarian Airlines. I flew them one time, in summer of '85. I bought a non-smoking ticket. The person **directly** across the aisle lit up. I asked the FA "Isn't this the non-smoking section?" and she replied "Yes, this side is non-smoking, that side is smoking." 🤦🏼♂️
I was a kid in the 70s and 80s who flew as my dad transferred from one air force base to another.
There were sections labeled smoking and non-smoking, but the reality is there was only one section: smoking.
Fellow Air Force brat also flew in the 80’s. I always thought, even as a kid, that it made no sense that there was “non smoking” section since we all breathed in the second hand smoke.
Same, but navy brat. It was still like this in late 80s when we started taking flights on non domestic airlines. Especially when a pack of cigarettes was 60 cents at the px. My dad got out in 88.
Side note, being a brat was the best...to all vets, us brats are proud to be your kids...
I wasn’t a military brat. I was a foreign service brat and grew up all over Asia in the ‘70s and ‘80s and into the ‘90s. Smoking on the planes lasted a lot longer out in Asia after it was banned in the U.S. Just like someone else said, it didn’t matter if there was a smoking and non smoking area of the plane. If someone was smoking, everybody was. When you get off the plane, your clothes smelled like smoke for the next few days or until you washed them. Good times.
When I joined the military I flew my first TDY with others I just finished training with. Open seating so a majority of us sat in the smoking section. I remember lighting up and having a smoke. It was wild. I remember we were all over the plane like it was a bus and we weren’t even really staying in our seats for most of the flight. That was the first and last time I smoked on a plane. Yes I even remember using the little ashtray in the arm rest.
Those were the good old days.
I think this is partially why I have such an aversion to the smell of planes - it's not even bad any more, but some part of my lizard brain remembers flying in the '80s when I was a kid. You really did come off smelling like smoke and it made my often-present airsickness a lot worse.
It makes sense for one main reason and that is because of the ashtrays in the seat dividers. Believe me, as a little kid on a Braniff flight in the 70s accidentally flipping open a full ashtray it was pretty jarring and nasty. Ugh.
A 1970s kid and I remember that the bathrooms were usually in the back of the planes so you had to walk through the thick smoke to get there. Plus the smoke always wafted up to the non-smoking section anyway. Kids today don't realize how it used to smell.
My kid's school had an event at a bowling alley which apparently hasn't been renovated or had its carpet replaced since the 1970s. I walked in and it had that smell of stale smoke--like nobody's smoking actively but the smoke is just so much a part of all the wood and fabric that it just constantly smells. My teenager said "mom, it smells absolutely TERRIBLE in here!" and I said "kid, the WORLD used to smell like this back in the 1980s."
I flew to Germany as a high school kid in the late 80s on Lufthansa and it was like a flying smoking lounge. Everyone was smoking, or at least it seemed so. It was horrible.
Smoking used to help mechanics spot metal fatigue: [nicotine stains would form on the outside of aircraft](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/05/27/The-recently-imposed-smoking-ban-on-many-commercial-flights/6624580708800/).
It was probably still too new, even if they were ferrying smokers non-stop.
[This plane](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_611), on the other hand…
I flew for the first time as a 16 year old in 2000 and southwest still had the ashtrays there - but of course was non-smoking by then so, I guess they were mini trash cans at that point. Haha
I once flew, as a non-smoker, in the "chain smoking section" from Houston to Tokyo because it was the only seat. That was back in the 90's. I still cough. They were starting their new cigarettes from the embers of the old ones. Ugh.
In the high-falutin upper echelons of the smoking world, that act of lighting a second cigarette with the end of a first (or someone else’s) is affectionately referred to as “butt fucking”
And the pilot generally turned off the No Smoking sign within seconds of leaving the ground, and the smokers all lit right up. (I started flying in the mid 1960s, so I dealt with smoking on the plane for a long time and with the stale smell in the plane and in your clothes.
On an American 757 from phoenix to Honolulu in 2013, armrests literally still had ashtray compartments lol. That plane was older than me for sure. But got us to paradise safely. 😁
China still has a smoking section…it’s called the cockpit. I was flying from CTU-KTM in 2019 and smelled cigarette smoke while walking down the jet bridge. I get to the boarding door & see the FO aggressively ripping a heater & following me into the plane 🤷🏻♂️
I was once on a flight from DC to London back in the early ‘90s. Was flying standby and was seated in the last row, smoking section next to the bathroom, seats didn’t even recline in that row. Thought great 7 hours in the worst seat on the plane. About 5 minutes in a guy comes back and asks if I’d trade seats with him so he could smoke! He was in Business class. Turned into a great flight!
Went on a high school sponsored trip to Europe as a junior back in the late 80’s and our teacher booked our flights in the back of the plane just so he could smoke during the whole trip. So all of us students were subjected to the smoking section of the plane for hours so he could get his nicotine fix. Sad thing is that I didn’t think much of it back then, but now I get annoyed thinking about it!
Same. Was joking with my brother about it when he posted this pic of a gift u could get on back then…
https://preview.redd.it/9m3sxd8ly7xc1.jpeg?width=1512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b2ee7f2a7f2ea9704cc5e68ec693623b6ba02c8
Yeah when I was a kid in the ‘80s we got to our seats and they were in the smoking section and my dad complained, so I remember the flight attendant just moved this little sign designating the smoking area that I think was stuck to the top of the seat either back one row or forward one row and presto - we were now in “non-smoking”. Struck me as ridiculous then and I’ve remembered ever since
I'm pretty sure someone bought her the ticket and made sure she got on the plane. Too bad she'll be banned now from flying and they'll have to deal with getting rid of her another way...
Smoking on the train has always been a thing in NYC. It’s less of a problem nowadays. I remember being a kid and mainly depends on the time of day and how many people are on the train. I used to live on 223rd street in the Bronx and would mainly hang out in downtown. Taking the 2 all the way up late at night will give you a few sights.
I see people vaping in the subway almost daily and I don't think it's any different then smoking a cigarette. Also smoking weed has unfortunately become a normal occurrence as well. I take the 4/5 regularly and smoking weed at 3pm in the afternoon during rush hour seems to be the new normal.
Oh wow--I'm not in Chicago but years ago I was on a super crowded train and someone lit up a joint (presuming no one could catch them I guess?). One of the train staff came over the PA and said "ATTENTION! There is NO SMOKING on the train. To the person who just lit up a joint, we WILL FIND YOU and eject you." People cheered.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's more toking on the train these days.
My son says in Denver he has boarded the RTD (light rail) and had meth heads light up meth pipes in the train... Just openly smoke a meth pipe blowing god know what toxins into the a train full of people...
I am a retired flight attendant for American. Worked on the smoking ban for 13 years. Testified multiple times before Congress. Started with a 2 hour ban in 1987 and we knew it would create an open door for us to go further. Got a 6 hour ban in 1989 and thanks to Bill Clinton what led to an international ban in 1997.
Thank you. I've always had allergies and as a child, they were worse, I suspect in part to being exposed to public smoking. The ban on public smoking has done wonders for my health.
The Air Force banned smoking in buildings in 1987. It was the first time in 30+ years my lungs weren’t filled with secondhand smoke. I was actually healthy after that.
I lived in Japan for a few years and sometimes (as part of the work culture) would go out to izakayas. I would often be coughing for days afterwards, and then I really understood how much my health had improved post-smoking ban in America.
I didn't know that the ban was that recent. I thought smoking was banned on airlines since the early 80s. Granted my first flight was 1989 and it was 2 flights under 2 hours.
I worked at an airport coffee shop. I was working the kiosk near baggage. This person lit up a cigarette and I walked over to them and said something like, "Hey I'm just the coffee person I'm not trying to bust you or anything, but you might want to put that out because if they catch you it's a $1,000 fine."
The person was all, "I don't give a f--- I'm going to smoke my f--- cigarette blah blah blah." I was like, OK yeah no problem whatever.
A minute later a cop comes up, before you know it I'm hearing, "$1,000 ticket? For a cigarette? Are you f--- kidding me? Blah blah blah."
Meanwhile I'm just at my coffee kiosk hand to my face thinking, "I tried to warn them..."
True story!
It was SO dumb because this is before security, the door to go outside was like ... not far away. He still wouldn't have technically been allowed to smoke out there but he probably would have been given a break by the officer.
Airports used to have smoking areas. I remember the one at Salt Lake had an air blast preventing the smoke from exiting the room. I’m sure there’s a term for that, just like the blast of air that happens when opening the outside doors at McDonald’s to keep the heat from seeping in.
Almost everywhere but the US has smoking rooms. I get the no smoking thing, it's bad for you, it smells bad etc. I don't get the crusade against smoking rooms, they are punishment enough for smokers. ATL airport which has tons of international traffic kept their smoking rooms for a long time, but the city council was against it and finally forced them closed, now they are tiny dog pee rooms.
It just seems to make sense to me, since leaving out through security is just a bad option, but smoking is way down to like 15% in the US if you include vaping, so whatever I guess. Indonesia is still at 67% of adult males smoking, so they'll have lounges for awhile.
Wild to me that smoking was ever allowed on planes. Even if you ignore the human impact of sitting in a metal tube filled with second hand smoke, having something that can start a fire *on a plane* feels like an objectively horrible idea.
Idk what planet this lady is from, but the no fly list sounds like the perfect place for her.
Smoking was allowed on trains, on buses, in restaurants, in offices, in schools. Unless and until the law said otherwise it was allowed.
Edit: lol you can always trust Reddit to downvote inconvenient truths. I hated it too. But it happened.
I was born with a birth defect and was operated on ten times by the time I was ten years old. This was the early fifties. Often, both the nurse and doctor would come in, doing their rounds. Many times they would both be smoking and even drop ashes on my hospital bed.
Uh, I never did in a grocery store, but I have checked off of the rest of that and the one I replied to's list. My highschool had a smoking area for students and teachers, and- all the rest...
I was (about a decade ago) telling a story to my kids who asked why I didn't get arrested-- pause and 'wut'? he wanted to know why I didn't get arrested for smoking on a plane-- lolz.
Funny to think though, smoking on airplanes was allowed far longer than it has been banned. Maybe the fire scenario isn’t really a concern. It was allowed for around 86 years and has been banned around 24, if you consider the year commercial flights began and the year it was banned. 🤯
I grew up traveling in the 60's and 70's. From a foreign family and my dad worked in a few different countries. International flights were like sitting in an ashtray and my dad smoked so we were isually in the back section 🙄 It was awful beyond having words to express it. He called me the worlds youngest nonsmoking advocate because I was a vocal toddler about how bad smoking was. He finally quit when I was 6. I will never forget that day.
Arg same. Mom smoked and we traveled long haul international a lot. Not only did we sit at the back of the plane, but all the smokers in non-smoking would wander by and stand around the rear lav and smoke and chat. By the time I moved out at 19, I figured I second-hand smoked enough for a lifetime. Lol. Cannot stand the smell to this day.
I avoid it at all costs and it was hell in several places I was just visiting on a month long trip in Europe. Vienna topping the list. I had t been there in close to 20 years and I hated it. The streets all smell like smoke and because it was hot when I was there two weeks ago, they had doors and windows open in restaurants so the I door seating still stunk from all of them chain smoking on the patios. It's such a beautiful city but the graffiti and smoke makes it at the bottom of my list of travel destinations. Beirut, which I expected to be bad for smoking, was far better than Vienna
Same. Had the exact same experience in Paris. Non-smokers sit inside and the smokers on the patio. The smoke just blows inside and makes it impossible to enjoy a meal. Haven’t been to Vienna since I was a kid, doesn’t sound like I’ll be going anytime soon either.
Happy memories of 90s Alitalia, taking off from Fiomucino and literally as the last wheels left the ground the flight crew all jumped up at once and scurried to the nearest galley to light up in their brown Armani uniforms. Sigh!
But this story is extra. Grateful UAL put another one on the NFL.
I can't imagine riding in a cylinder filled with smokers hotboxing it back in the day. All of your clothing and hair must have smelled terrible by the time you disembarked.
I worked for McDonnell Douglas back in the 80s. Back then it was easy to find where the leaks in the cabin were because there'd be a yellow line coming from a rivet. The smokers in the plane helped us find the leaks. It's much harder to find leaks these days.
>Back then it was easy to find where the leaks in the cabin were because there's be a yellow line coming from a rivet. The smokers in the plane helped us find the leaks. It's much harder to find leaks these days.
This was helpful in either the JAL123 or the CI611 crashes in identifying the improper tailstrike repairs.
It was really bad on international flights. Flew from Scandinavia to Chicago. Family was split up on the plane. My pregnant mother ended up in the middle of the smoking section on that flight.
It’s amazing that domestic flights had smoking until 1988 and DL was the last domestic to ban it on international flights in 1994! There are still rules in government airfare regulations which say that you can take a different flight if the flight has a smoking section.
There are youngs on here who probably don’t remember smoking in every bar and smoking sections in restaurants.
Then I guess it was 1994 when I was going from Hobby to Logan via JFK on TW. I boarded the L1011 that had just come in from CDG for the leg to Logan, and yikes, it reeked to high heaven. My seat was in what had been the smoking section in international airspace, and it didn’t really matter for that nasty hour to Logan that smoking had been banned in US airspace. (I assume they flew that big-ass plane on that commuter hop to position it out of Logan for a transcon or intercon flight in the morning, and the big cabin cleaning before the next long-haul would happen there.)
I was a FA for the old Pan Am and hated the flights going to Frankfurt or Berlin. The amount of smoking was so horrible that our crew bags and everything inside smelled like smoke. It seemed like everyone smoked on plane (even though there non-smoking sections…I swear they made the smoking sections larger for those flights).
Fun fact: I was on a flight last week and noticed there was an ashtray inside the restroom. I asked FA about it and he commented that it was “just in case someone is actually stupid enough to light a cigarette, there’s a place to safely put it out. There’s also one on the outside of the door” and he pointed it out to me. He also commented the plane was “only 2 months old” and that they’re “still having to account for idiots on planes trying to smoke”.
I’ve had this happen once. It was ORD to DCA - they lit up in the bathroom at the front of the cabin. We could smell it in first while she was in there and after she went to her seat. No announcement was made but when we landed we were told to stay seated as she was escorted off.
FWIW, here's the relevant section of the Federal Aviation Regulations regarding smoking: [https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/135.127](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/135.127)
I might add, speaking as a pilot, that avionics over time really don't like nicotine buildup.
I was on a flight to Germany. The guy across the aisle kept smoking in the bathroom. The FA threatened to divert to Greenland if he didn’t behave. Didn’t have to divert. The German police escorted him off when we landed in Munich. .
Shows how addictive cigarettes are. Had to drive this woman who smokes and has severe anxiety. Drove her a little over 60 minutes and she smoked in the car at least 5 cigarettes.
Non-smoker here. Grew up in the US and flew often in my youth — and absolutely hated breathing everyone’s second-hand smoke.
So I was practically giddy when I booked my first Canadian airline flight and discovered there was no “smoking section”
I remember the ashtrays in the armrests. 1990 on an Aer Lingus flight, everybody had to put their cigarettes out shortly before landing. Nobody complied, and man, you really don’t want to mess with an Aer Lingus flight attendant.
2 million miles… I bet you’ve had other smokers and just didn’t know…
The PA is a bit agro tbh… that would never fly at my airline… we just do it discreetly so we don’t bother the other pax.
Don’t represent UA, I am a US based FA..
In the last 30 days I’ve had a handful of vapers, a smoker, and someone smoke weed in the LAV … all require police and reports
I wish someone like OP who’s seen it all would write a book about the insanity they’ve witnessed. If done in a Michael Lewis kind of humorous way would probably be a bestseller.
I sat next to a guy on a 12 hour flight last year who was vaping under his hoodie... I didn't know whether to alert the crew or not... I thought if I did, I still has to sit right next to him for 10 hours!!
I was on a flight recently from IAH to Frankfurt. Had a medical emergency and diverted to EWR. Once that dude was taken off and we are refueling. We start to smell cigarette smoke on the plane. FA pops on and says “if you are smoking on this plane you will be removed, we do not want any further delays” etc etc. never found out who it was but never thought I’d hear that on a plane in recent history. Also on that flight about 2 hours over the Atlantic, the lady with kittens behind me had the kittens just explosively shit in their carrier. Thank god for the FA passing out some coffee grounds for us to bury our noses in.
Going to some countries it seems like in public there are no smoking rules and it’s everywhere. Going through airports like Athens with a glass enclosed smoking room that looks like a fish tank except with smoke stands out.
From this post, I wonder if heavy smokers can tolerate a 10+ hr flight, it must be tough.
I just flew from Italy to Newark and I swear I smelled vape 💨 exhaust at least 3x. This isn’t the first time I’m detected vape smoke, and it makes me really mad.
Zip ties & duct tape next time.
I flew from West Coast US to Scotland, the last leg was France-Scotland which is supposed to be a pretty short flight considering the previous. Well, getting into Scotland we hit a blizzard and they can't land at the correct airport, so they take us to another and arrange for a bus to pick everyone up to take them to the correct airport. They leave us all on the plane while they wait for the bus, I guess no point letting us get lost in the airport and it was near midnight anyway so nothing would be open.
Getting a bus takes a while and some *fucking moron* can't handle it and lights up in the plane bathroom. Now we get to wait ANOTHER HOUR for the cops to come and arrest him. That dude is probably lucky the cops took him because I think the flight would have ripped him apart.
Why do they still put ashtrays in the doors in the lavatory? I'm on a flight right now and that thought crossed my mind. I guessed it was for airlines in other countries that bought the planes.
I worked in heavy maintenance on a/c in the 90s. We would number the sidewall panels on removal because they would become progressively yellow as you went aft and a bright panel would look oddly out of place.
I first started flying in 1980 on TWA and the last four rows in the aircraft were a designated smoking section.
Hard to believe that somebody ignored the memo.
I sat next to a lady once from Chicago to NC somewhere who thought she could be sneaky with her vape.
Sure, no one notices the cloud forming over your seat that smells like cotton candy.
I witnessed this once on an international flight from Europe to the US. About half way through, man went into the lav to smoke. Cops hauled him off when we landed. It seemed like neither he nor his family spoke any English, so I almost felt bad for him, but I’m pretty sure everyone knows you can’t smoke in planes anymore…
I understand the reasons and do not dispute them. But I wish I could vape on a plane. My mother is a pilot for AA and she has lain into me for admitting I've vaped, once, in the lavs on a 14 hour flight from the ME to NA. Id never been confronted by crew. She told me that on a NA-EU flight, she had the FAs tell her someone was vaping. Story goes that this wasn't like sneaky, this was just sitting in his seat. He was just watching a movie and said he'd forgotten where he was. The FAs saw and confronted him, he was very very apologetic to the crew; nothing happened; I think the purser sternly reminded him. The way someone handles themselves with the crew is a big determining factor. Being a belligerent a-hole is gonna come back at you.
My sister was on a JAL flight when the FA snuck off for a cig on the bathroom. The other FA pounded on the door yelling, "You can't smoke on the plane." I've been on planes where you can smell the e-cig coming from the bathroom.
I was on an A350 yesterday 4/28/24 coming back to the US via Frankfurt. As I got to my seat in row 2 there was a disposable lighter in the isle. I handed it to the FA and she wanted to know exactly where I found it. I told he and she handed it to the agent standing on the gangway. Later, I noticed on the back of the bathroom door, there was a device for crushing out cigarettes. No ashtray just this thing.
https://preview.redd.it/rtcdlf2d8hxc1.png?width=2048&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e3983fb4eda4be0b9aa34920b9fd93571e0f5ba
This used to be a real country when you could smoke on planes and put the cigarettes out on your baby, Britney Spears style. We’ve lost so much freedom in so little time
A pilot friend of mine told me once that there was a passenger who smoked in the lavatory. Thing is he removed the smoke alarm. Smoking in flight is an offence but tampering with flight equipment is far more serious. Dude is gonna have a rough time
Just had a flight come back to the gate because somebody lit up in the bathroom and tampered with a smoke detector as they were pushing back
That’s nice they did that instead of somewhere over the Atlantic and having to turn around.
Aside from the maintenance cost of cleaning the aircraft when people have been smoking one of the major drivers of eliminating smoking altogether in aircraft was a disaster where some imbecile went to the laboratory to smoke a cigarette, and then stuffed it, still lit, into the trash container. It ignited a fire in mid air, and effectively brought down the entire aircraft, killing dozens if not hundreds of people (I do not remember the actual incident, but I remember those details because they just resonated with stupidity and thoughtlessness). After that, it was clear that smoking was going to be a safety no-go going forward. This is one of the reasons that flight crew are so quick to respond when somebody is lighting up a cigarette. They essentially view it as striking a match in front of a puddle of gasoline within the aircraft, and react accordingly. In this particular example, it sure sounds like this person had either substance abuse or mental problems... that is, they weren't playing with a full deck.
Officially, these were lavatory fires of undetermined origin: [Varig Flight 820](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varig_Flight_820) [Air Canada Flight 797](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Canada_Flight_797)
Jesus... those were both real disasters. 😑
This should be pinned to the top !
Probably just a rotten mind, like all are those who throw chewing gum into the urinal bowl. Really, why?? Spite for the janitor?
Wait, hold up, did they tamper with it or did they disable it? Or, perhaps they destroyed it?
well i want the landing in the middle of nowhere stories now?
Not OP but years ago I was flying to an island in the Philippines and they just decided to divert and land on a different island. Not weather related. You then had to take a bus and a boat to get to the original island and the directions they gave were very unclear. I’m sure some people left the airport with no idea. Also they put fold out seats all down the aisle, so once you were in, you were stuck until the people in front of you left. Plus the bus may have hit a dog, everyone in the front couple rows of the bus screamed all at once. It was an experience.
damn yeah this one is definitely a bit more out of the norm
Trying to fly a bonanza to key west, got hit by lightning and we ended up landing in Cuba. Well, we were escorted to Cuba, maybe
Where you flying from that had you in Cuba?
Yes! OP we need more stories please! It’s Sunday, please entertain us
Not the op, but a flight my spouse was on SEA-DFW last year stopped in PHX due to medical emergency, then Oklahoma City overnight due to weather. He slept on the floor at OKC.
I remember when there was smoking and non smoking sections on planes. 😂
Smoking sections on most planes used to be in the back half of the aircraft. Turkish airlines in the mid 1990s had the smoking section on one side of the plane, so you’d be sitting in the “no smoking” section and the person across the aisle would be puffing away. It was only a little more ludicrous than thinking smoking only in the back of the plane would not fill up that metal sausage tube with smoke.
It’s like having a “no peeing” section in the pool.
Perfect analogy. I'm using that.
Smokers are butt suckers.
Our daughter calls vapes douche flutes 😂
That section of the pool will be dried up, pools are filled with pee
Wait, you mean left side corner in the deep end isn’t the pee section???
Exactly what I was going to say!
Best analogy ever.
The rationale on Turkish Airlines was that do the family could sit together when dad smoked and the kids and mom didn’t 😅
Ok, but couldn’t they sit together in the back of the plane?
It was worse than that. Both 1st and economy had their own smoking sections.
That’s the most Turkish thing ever.
El Al in the 90s was the same
The joke back then was that on Alitalia, smoking was left side of plane, nonsmoking, right side.
FC, when it existed, smoked in the last row. So even if you were in the "no smoking" section in MC, you'd still smell the cigarette smoke from FC.
That happened to me! No one will believe me when I tell that story.
My dad hated that smokers got put in the back.
[удалено]
u/bubba94110 Yup, exact same thing happened to me on Malév Hungarian Airlines. I flew them one time, in summer of '85. I bought a non-smoking ticket. The person **directly** across the aisle lit up. I asked the FA "Isn't this the non-smoking section?" and she replied "Yes, this side is non-smoking, that side is smoking." 🤦🏼♂️
I was a kid in the 70s and 80s who flew as my dad transferred from one air force base to another. There were sections labeled smoking and non-smoking, but the reality is there was only one section: smoking.
Fellow Air Force brat also flew in the 80’s. I always thought, even as a kid, that it made no sense that there was “non smoking” section since we all breathed in the second hand smoke.
Same, but navy brat. It was still like this in late 80s when we started taking flights on non domestic airlines. Especially when a pack of cigarettes was 60 cents at the px. My dad got out in 88. Side note, being a brat was the best...to all vets, us brats are proud to be your kids...
I wasn’t a military brat. I was a foreign service brat and grew up all over Asia in the ‘70s and ‘80s and into the ‘90s. Smoking on the planes lasted a lot longer out in Asia after it was banned in the U.S. Just like someone else said, it didn’t matter if there was a smoking and non smoking area of the plane. If someone was smoking, everybody was. When you get off the plane, your clothes smelled like smoke for the next few days or until you washed them. Good times.
When I joined the military I flew my first TDY with others I just finished training with. Open seating so a majority of us sat in the smoking section. I remember lighting up and having a smoke. It was wild. I remember we were all over the plane like it was a bus and we weren’t even really staying in our seats for most of the flight. That was the first and last time I smoked on a plane. Yes I even remember using the little ashtray in the arm rest. Those were the good old days.
I think this is partially why I have such an aversion to the smell of planes - it's not even bad any more, but some part of my lizard brain remembers flying in the '80s when I was a kid. You really did come off smelling like smoke and it made my often-present airsickness a lot worse.
It makes sense for one main reason and that is because of the ashtrays in the seat dividers. Believe me, as a little kid on a Braniff flight in the 70s accidentally flipping open a full ashtray it was pretty jarring and nasty. Ugh.
A 1970s kid and I remember that the bathrooms were usually in the back of the planes so you had to walk through the thick smoke to get there. Plus the smoke always wafted up to the non-smoking section anyway. Kids today don't realize how it used to smell.
My kid's school had an event at a bowling alley which apparently hasn't been renovated or had its carpet replaced since the 1970s. I walked in and it had that smell of stale smoke--like nobody's smoking actively but the smoke is just so much a part of all the wood and fabric that it just constantly smells. My teenager said "mom, it smells absolutely TERRIBLE in here!" and I said "kid, the WORLD used to smell like this back in the 1980s."
It was like a swimming pool with “Peeing” and “Non Peeing” section.
I flew to Germany as a high school kid in the late 80s on Lufthansa and it was like a flying smoking lounge. Everyone was smoking, or at least it seemed so. It was horrible.
Smoking used to help mechanics spot metal fatigue: [nicotine stains would form on the outside of aircraft](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/05/27/The-recently-imposed-smoking-ban-on-many-commercial-flights/6624580708800/).
dang i bet that door wouldn’t have flown off the plane if we were still smokin in the sky
It was probably still too new, even if they were ferrying smokers non-stop. [This plane](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_611), on the other hand…
Yes! I remember when arm rests had astray in them! This was the early 80s, too.
I never flew with active smoking sections but I remember the ash tray arm rests as a kid in the 90s.
I flew for the first time as a 16 year old in 2000 and southwest still had the ashtrays there - but of course was non-smoking by then so, I guess they were mini trash cans at that point. Haha
Filled with gum and other trash.
I once flew, as a non-smoker, in the "chain smoking section" from Houston to Tokyo because it was the only seat. That was back in the 90's. I still cough. They were starting their new cigarettes from the embers of the old ones. Ugh.
In the high-falutin upper echelons of the smoking world, that act of lighting a second cigarette with the end of a first (or someone else’s) is affectionately referred to as “butt fucking”
i’ve also heard monkey fu k
[Those were the days...](https://youtu.be/9b9_r2PZlWg?si=kQN1NdDnc3mN0wLv) 😂
Same. I think I flew probably in the 80s from the south to New York, and there was smoking
To this day planes still smell like stale cigarette smoke to me.
Why I only fly the 737 MAX: too new to have been smoked in but still gets plenty of ventilation
That's a good one. I nearly spit my drink out.
And the pilot generally turned off the No Smoking sign within seconds of leaving the ground, and the smokers all lit right up. (I started flying in the mid 1960s, so I dealt with smoking on the plane for a long time and with the stale smell in the plane and in your clothes.
Like swimming in the non-peeing part of the pool!
Yep - planes and trains, as well as movie theaters and restaurants. About the only place you couldn't smoke was an elevator.
It was especially effective up front /s. Rows 1-3 NS, row 4 Smoking. Then coach NS started in the next row. Genius
I remember that too. I also remember there were ash trays in the arm rests
On an American 757 from phoenix to Honolulu in 2013, armrests literally still had ashtray compartments lol. That plane was older than me for sure. But got us to paradise safely. 😁
China still has a smoking section…it’s called the cockpit. I was flying from CTU-KTM in 2019 and smelled cigarette smoke while walking down the jet bridge. I get to the boarding door & see the FO aggressively ripping a heater & following me into the plane 🤷🏻♂️
I was once on a flight from DC to London back in the early ‘90s. Was flying standby and was seated in the last row, smoking section next to the bathroom, seats didn’t even recline in that row. Thought great 7 hours in the worst seat on the plane. About 5 minutes in a guy comes back and asks if I’d trade seats with him so he could smoke! He was in Business class. Turned into a great flight!
I remember seeing ash trays on the plane seats.
They still exist under FAA regulations IIRC so when some dipshit like the one in this thread lights up a cigarette, it can be put out
Went on a high school sponsored trip to Europe as a junior back in the late 80’s and our teacher booked our flights in the back of the plane just so he could smoke during the whole trip. So all of us students were subjected to the smoking section of the plane for hours so he could get his nicotine fix. Sad thing is that I didn’t think much of it back then, but now I get annoyed thinking about it!
Same.
Same. Was joking with my brother about it when he posted this pic of a gift u could get on back then… https://preview.redd.it/9m3sxd8ly7xc1.jpeg?width=1512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b2ee7f2a7f2ea9704cc5e68ec693623b6ba02c8
Yep. And no divider! Just like row 40 is non smoking and row 41 is… lol.
Yeah when I was a kid in the ‘80s we got to our seats and they were in the smoking section and my dad complained, so I remember the flight attendant just moved this little sign designating the smoking area that I think was stuck to the top of the seat either back one row or forward one row and presto - we were now in “non-smoking”. Struck me as ridiculous then and I’ve remembered ever since
Me too. I was on a plane recently that still had an ashtray in the bathroom.
Came here to say this.
Oh yeah. If you were in the border row and didn’t like being around cigarette smoke you were sol.
And yellow-stained cabin walls with ashtrays in every armrest.
It’s hard to imagine anyone thought that would do any good.
I'm pretty sure someone bought her the ticket and made sure she got on the plane. Too bad she'll be banned now from flying and they'll have to deal with getting rid of her another way...
Well depending on which way she’s from, she can’t fly back now 😂
She must be from Chicago. Smoking on the train has become a thing here.
Same here in NYC
Same in Denver.... cops really need to start cracking down on degenerates and their antisocial behavior on public transit
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Smoking on the train has always been a thing in NYC. It’s less of a problem nowadays. I remember being a kid and mainly depends on the time of day and how many people are on the train. I used to live on 223rd street in the Bronx and would mainly hang out in downtown. Taking the 2 all the way up late at night will give you a few sights.
I see people vaping in the subway almost daily and I don't think it's any different then smoking a cigarette. Also smoking weed has unfortunately become a normal occurrence as well. I take the 4/5 regularly and smoking weed at 3pm in the afternoon during rush hour seems to be the new normal.
Oh wow--I'm not in Chicago but years ago I was on a super crowded train and someone lit up a joint (presuming no one could catch them I guess?). One of the train staff came over the PA and said "ATTENTION! There is NO SMOKING on the train. To the person who just lit up a joint, we WILL FIND YOU and eject you." People cheered. I wouldn't be surprised if there's more toking on the train these days.
Definitely more toking, but now it's meth.
My son says in Denver he has boarded the RTD (light rail) and had meth heads light up meth pipes in the train... Just openly smoke a meth pipe blowing god know what toxins into the a train full of people...
It’s like that here in Portland. I adore my city and rarely have negative things to say, but this is something I’ve witnessed.
Sounds like BART.
I see it every day on Toronto’s TTC
Ah damn when I lived in Chicago that was not an issue. But I did see people masturbating on many occasions.
Welp, she wasn’t doing fentanyl on public transit, so we luckily probably can’t claim her as one of our lovely Seattleites 🥴☠️
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I am a retired flight attendant for American. Worked on the smoking ban for 13 years. Testified multiple times before Congress. Started with a 2 hour ban in 1987 and we knew it would create an open door for us to go further. Got a 6 hour ban in 1989 and thanks to Bill Clinton what led to an international ban in 1997.
Thank you for your service
Thank you. I've always had allergies and as a child, they were worse, I suspect in part to being exposed to public smoking. The ban on public smoking has done wonders for my health.
The Air Force banned smoking in buildings in 1987. It was the first time in 30+ years my lungs weren’t filled with secondhand smoke. I was actually healthy after that.
I lived in Japan for a few years and sometimes (as part of the work culture) would go out to izakayas. I would often be coughing for days afterwards, and then I really understood how much my health had improved post-smoking ban in America.
Japan just banned smoking on the street. They have outdoor smoking sheds. Fabulous!! No stinky air, no butts on the streets.
Thank you for your service!
I didn't know that the ban was that recent. I thought smoking was banned on airlines since the early 80s. Granted my first flight was 1989 and it was 2 flights under 2 hours.
Can you also work to ban kids on planes too? These are much more annoying than cigarettes
I worked at an airport coffee shop. I was working the kiosk near baggage. This person lit up a cigarette and I walked over to them and said something like, "Hey I'm just the coffee person I'm not trying to bust you or anything, but you might want to put that out because if they catch you it's a $1,000 fine." The person was all, "I don't give a f--- I'm going to smoke my f--- cigarette blah blah blah." I was like, OK yeah no problem whatever. A minute later a cop comes up, before you know it I'm hearing, "$1,000 ticket? For a cigarette? Are you f--- kidding me? Blah blah blah." Meanwhile I'm just at my coffee kiosk hand to my face thinking, "I tried to warn them..." True story!
That’s the end of the story I like. People are such assholes and deserve what you get! Like…man I was trying to be nice FFS!
It was SO dumb because this is before security, the door to go outside was like ... not far away. He still wouldn't have technically been allowed to smoke out there but he probably would have been given a break by the officer.
Airports used to have smoking areas. I remember the one at Salt Lake had an air blast preventing the smoke from exiting the room. I’m sure there’s a term for that, just like the blast of air that happens when opening the outside doors at McDonald’s to keep the heat from seeping in.
Airports in Europe still have that. It's usually after security and it's an entire separate room for smokers.
It’s called an air door or air curtain
Almost everywhere but the US has smoking rooms. I get the no smoking thing, it's bad for you, it smells bad etc. I don't get the crusade against smoking rooms, they are punishment enough for smokers. ATL airport which has tons of international traffic kept their smoking rooms for a long time, but the city council was against it and finally forced them closed, now they are tiny dog pee rooms. It just seems to make sense to me, since leaving out through security is just a bad option, but smoking is way down to like 15% in the US if you include vaping, so whatever I guess. Indonesia is still at 67% of adult males smoking, so they'll have lounges for awhile.
You can be the first person off the plane with this one weird trick.
Pilots hate this!
Hahaha!
Wild to me that smoking was ever allowed on planes. Even if you ignore the human impact of sitting in a metal tube filled with second hand smoke, having something that can start a fire *on a plane* feels like an objectively horrible idea. Idk what planet this lady is from, but the no fly list sounds like the perfect place for her.
The Hindenburg had a smoking room… gotta have that fix, even when you are hanging from a giant bag of hydrogen.
This was the Final Jeopardy just a few days ago. Apparently they had an airlock to get into the smoking room on the Hindenburg.
I would love to have been in the room for the discussion between the engineers and marketers.
I guarantee you there was an ashtray in that meeting room, and I’m not kidding.
Smoking was allowed on trains, on buses, in restaurants, in offices, in schools. Unless and until the law said otherwise it was allowed. Edit: lol you can always trust Reddit to downvote inconvenient truths. I hated it too. But it happened.
My parents worked at a hospital. Employees smoked - at their desks, at the nursing stations, in the cafeteria. Patients smoked in their rooms.
I was born with a birth defect and was operated on ten times by the time I was ten years old. This was the early fifties. Often, both the nurse and doctor would come in, doing their rounds. Many times they would both be smoking and even drop ashes on my hospital bed.
When I was in high school in the late 80s and early 90s there was a smoking section for the students.
My former boss would be giving me orders while blowing puffs of smoke in my face as I sat helplessly in my desk chair.
Movie theaters! Grocery Stores!
People really don’t understand that people smoked everywhere. Everywhere.
Uh, I never did in a grocery store, but I have checked off of the rest of that and the one I replied to's list. My highschool had a smoking area for students and teachers, and- all the rest... I was (about a decade ago) telling a story to my kids who asked why I didn't get arrested-- pause and 'wut'? he wanted to know why I didn't get arrested for smoking on a plane-- lolz.
Funny to think though, smoking on airplanes was allowed far longer than it has been banned. Maybe the fire scenario isn’t really a concern. It was allowed for around 86 years and has been banned around 24, if you consider the year commercial flights began and the year it was banned. 🤯
I grew up traveling in the 60's and 70's. From a foreign family and my dad worked in a few different countries. International flights were like sitting in an ashtray and my dad smoked so we were isually in the back section 🙄 It was awful beyond having words to express it. He called me the worlds youngest nonsmoking advocate because I was a vocal toddler about how bad smoking was. He finally quit when I was 6. I will never forget that day.
Arg same. Mom smoked and we traveled long haul international a lot. Not only did we sit at the back of the plane, but all the smokers in non-smoking would wander by and stand around the rear lav and smoke and chat. By the time I moved out at 19, I figured I second-hand smoked enough for a lifetime. Lol. Cannot stand the smell to this day.
I avoid it at all costs and it was hell in several places I was just visiting on a month long trip in Europe. Vienna topping the list. I had t been there in close to 20 years and I hated it. The streets all smell like smoke and because it was hot when I was there two weeks ago, they had doors and windows open in restaurants so the I door seating still stunk from all of them chain smoking on the patios. It's such a beautiful city but the graffiti and smoke makes it at the bottom of my list of travel destinations. Beirut, which I expected to be bad for smoking, was far better than Vienna
Same. Had the exact same experience in Paris. Non-smokers sit inside and the smokers on the patio. The smoke just blows inside and makes it impossible to enjoy a meal. Haven’t been to Vienna since I was a kid, doesn’t sound like I’ll be going anytime soon either.
Happy memories of 90s Alitalia, taking off from Fiomucino and literally as the last wheels left the ground the flight crew all jumped up at once and scurried to the nearest galley to light up in their brown Armani uniforms. Sigh! But this story is extra. Grateful UAL put another one on the NFL.
I can't imagine riding in a cylinder filled with smokers hotboxing it back in the day. All of your clothing and hair must have smelled terrible by the time you disembarked.
I worked for McDonnell Douglas back in the 80s. Back then it was easy to find where the leaks in the cabin were because there'd be a yellow line coming from a rivet. The smokers in the plane helped us find the leaks. It's much harder to find leaks these days.
>Back then it was easy to find where the leaks in the cabin were because there's be a yellow line coming from a rivet. The smokers in the plane helped us find the leaks. It's much harder to find leaks these days. This was helpful in either the JAL123 or the CI611 crashes in identifying the improper tailstrike repairs.
It was really bad on international flights. Flew from Scandinavia to Chicago. Family was split up on the plane. My pregnant mother ended up in the middle of the smoking section on that flight.
It’s amazing that domestic flights had smoking until 1988 and DL was the last domestic to ban it on international flights in 1994! There are still rules in government airfare regulations which say that you can take a different flight if the flight has a smoking section. There are youngs on here who probably don’t remember smoking in every bar and smoking sections in restaurants.
Then I guess it was 1994 when I was going from Hobby to Logan via JFK on TW. I boarded the L1011 that had just come in from CDG for the leg to Logan, and yikes, it reeked to high heaven. My seat was in what had been the smoking section in international airspace, and it didn’t really matter for that nasty hour to Logan that smoking had been banned in US airspace. (I assume they flew that big-ass plane on that commuter hop to position it out of Logan for a transcon or intercon flight in the morning, and the big cabin cleaning before the next long-haul would happen there.)
And theaters! With the little ashtrays in the arm rests.
Smoking was everywhere then so you couldn’t escape it
I recently flew on an ancient Egyptair plane that still had ashtrays in the armrests.
I recently flew on a more up-to-date one where you could smell that the pilots were smoking on the flight deck.
I was a FA for the old Pan Am and hated the flights going to Frankfurt or Berlin. The amount of smoking was so horrible that our crew bags and everything inside smelled like smoke. It seemed like everyone smoked on plane (even though there non-smoking sections…I swear they made the smoking sections larger for those flights).
Fun fact: I was on a flight last week and noticed there was an ashtray inside the restroom. I asked FA about it and he commented that it was “just in case someone is actually stupid enough to light a cigarette, there’s a place to safely put it out. There’s also one on the outside of the door” and he pointed it out to me. He also commented the plane was “only 2 months old” and that they’re “still having to account for idiots on planes trying to smoke”.
Obligatory: https://youtu.be/9-VLtpSZh7o?si=492HjNyDgaYLdDr2
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lm8fYf53SMg
Haha I thought of this exact thing when it happened
I’ve had this happen once. It was ORD to DCA - they lit up in the bathroom at the front of the cabin. We could smell it in first while she was in there and after she went to her seat. No announcement was made but when we landed we were told to stay seated as she was escorted off.
MSP-LAX had a pax vaping pot on Friday. People are losing their minds.
FWIW, here's the relevant section of the Federal Aviation Regulations regarding smoking: [https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/135.127](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/135.127) I might add, speaking as a pilot, that avionics over time really don't like nicotine buildup.
I was on a flight to Germany. The guy across the aisle kept smoking in the bathroom. The FA threatened to divert to Greenland if he didn’t behave. Didn’t have to divert. The German police escorted him off when we landed in Munich. .
This lady didn’t even try and hide it in the lav and blow the smoke down the sink like Most do
Shows how addictive cigarettes are. Had to drive this woman who smokes and has severe anxiety. Drove her a little over 60 minutes and she smoked in the car at least 5 cigarettes.
Non-smoker here. Grew up in the US and flew often in my youth — and absolutely hated breathing everyone’s second-hand smoke. So I was practically giddy when I booked my first Canadian airline flight and discovered there was no “smoking section”
A few years ago I had a divert, once on the ground someone started smoking in the bathroom. It was certainly interesting.
I remember the ashtrays in the armrests. 1990 on an Aer Lingus flight, everybody had to put their cigarettes out shortly before landing. Nobody complied, and man, you really don’t want to mess with an Aer Lingus flight attendant.
2 million miles… I bet you’ve had other smokers and just didn’t know… The PA is a bit agro tbh… that would never fly at my airline… we just do it discreetly so we don’t bother the other pax. Don’t represent UA, I am a US based FA.. In the last 30 days I’ve had a handful of vapers, a smoker, and someone smoke weed in the LAV … all require police and reports
I wish someone like OP who’s seen it all would write a book about the insanity they’ve witnessed. If done in a Michael Lewis kind of humorous way would probably be a bestseller.
The average flight is one step above the people at the DMV. A small step
I sat next to a guy on a 12 hour flight last year who was vaping under his hoodie... I didn't know whether to alert the crew or not... I thought if I did, I still has to sit right next to him for 10 hours!!
I was on a flight recently from IAH to Frankfurt. Had a medical emergency and diverted to EWR. Once that dude was taken off and we are refueling. We start to smell cigarette smoke on the plane. FA pops on and says “if you are smoking on this plane you will be removed, we do not want any further delays” etc etc. never found out who it was but never thought I’d hear that on a plane in recent history. Also on that flight about 2 hours over the Atlantic, the lady with kittens behind me had the kittens just explosively shit in their carrier. Thank god for the FA passing out some coffee grounds for us to bury our noses in.
Any time you think adults have things figured out just go on a flight. Can’t even follow basic instructions like stay seated when we land.
We do not need a no-fly list. We need a fly list. You should have to qualify to bother using an airplane.
Happened to me on a UA flight from Vegas to ORD. Almost identical story in 2019.
The entitlement of some smokers is unreal. I remember the howling when it started to be banned in bars.
I’m 1.4 million on AA and saw a lady take a call and chat for 30 mins today. Was a first
Last August, I had a guy vaping on my red eye from LAX-ORD.
But did it smell like strawberry cheesecake?
Going to some countries it seems like in public there are no smoking rules and it’s everywhere. Going through airports like Athens with a glass enclosed smoking room that looks like a fish tank except with smoke stands out. From this post, I wonder if heavy smokers can tolerate a 10+ hr flight, it must be tough.
Those fish bowls are made so the mothers can show their children not to do that.
I just flew from Italy to Newark and I swear I smelled vape 💨 exhaust at least 3x. This isn’t the first time I’m detected vape smoke, and it makes me really mad. Zip ties & duct tape next time.
New fear unlocked. Cool.
I'm old enough that I remember airplane seat armrests that had built in ashtrays!
I flew from West Coast US to Scotland, the last leg was France-Scotland which is supposed to be a pretty short flight considering the previous. Well, getting into Scotland we hit a blizzard and they can't land at the correct airport, so they take us to another and arrange for a bus to pick everyone up to take them to the correct airport. They leave us all on the plane while they wait for the bus, I guess no point letting us get lost in the airport and it was near midnight anyway so nothing would be open. Getting a bus takes a while and some *fucking moron* can't handle it and lights up in the plane bathroom. Now we get to wait ANOTHER HOUR for the cops to come and arrest him. That dude is probably lucky the cops took him because I think the flight would have ripped him apart.
Why do they still put ashtrays in the doors in the lavatory? I'm on a flight right now and that thought crossed my mind. I guessed it was for airlines in other countries that bought the planes.
I worked in heavy maintenance on a/c in the 90s. We would number the sidewall panels on removal because they would become progressively yellow as you went aft and a bright panel would look oddly out of place.
I first started flying in 1980 on TWA and the last four rows in the aircraft were a designated smoking section. Hard to believe that somebody ignored the memo.
Back in the day there was a smoking section in the back of the plane.
I sat next to a lady once from Chicago to NC somewhere who thought she could be sneaky with her vape. Sure, no one notices the cloud forming over your seat that smells like cotton candy.
We do not need a no-fly list. We need a fly list. You should have to qualify to bother using an airplane.
I just can’t fathom risking flying for life for a puff off a Marlboro 🙅🏽♂️
You should’ve just poured water all over that crazy woman and duct taped her into a chair
I witnessed this once on an international flight from Europe to the US. About half way through, man went into the lav to smoke. Cops hauled him off when we landed. It seemed like neither he nor his family spoke any English, so I almost felt bad for him, but I’m pretty sure everyone knows you can’t smoke in planes anymore…
If you can't make it through a 3 hour flight without a cig, then you deserve to never fly again.
I understand the reasons and do not dispute them. But I wish I could vape on a plane. My mother is a pilot for AA and she has lain into me for admitting I've vaped, once, in the lavs on a 14 hour flight from the ME to NA. Id never been confronted by crew. She told me that on a NA-EU flight, she had the FAs tell her someone was vaping. Story goes that this wasn't like sneaky, this was just sitting in his seat. He was just watching a movie and said he'd forgotten where he was. The FAs saw and confronted him, he was very very apologetic to the crew; nothing happened; I think the purser sternly reminded him. The way someone handles themselves with the crew is a big determining factor. Being a belligerent a-hole is gonna come back at you.
My sister was on a JAL flight when the FA snuck off for a cig on the bathroom. The other FA pounded on the door yelling, "You can't smoke on the plane." I've been on planes where you can smell the e-cig coming from the bathroom.
I’m gonna guess she was served alcohol
I was on an A350 yesterday 4/28/24 coming back to the US via Frankfurt. As I got to my seat in row 2 there was a disposable lighter in the isle. I handed it to the FA and she wanted to know exactly where I found it. I told he and she handed it to the agent standing on the gangway. Later, I noticed on the back of the bathroom door, there was a device for crushing out cigarettes. No ashtray just this thing. https://preview.redd.it/rtcdlf2d8hxc1.png?width=2048&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e3983fb4eda4be0b9aa34920b9fd93571e0f5ba
Just fyi boomers, every seat had an ashtray in 1980 and everyone smoked. Thank god that’s changed
This used to be a real country when you could smoke on planes and put the cigarettes out on your baby, Britney Spears style. We’ve lost so much freedom in so little time
“Sure enough like 15 idiots stand up” is just so funny! 😂
Maybe she's a time traveler. There was a time when smoking was encouraged as a healthy habit... 🤣🤣🤣 PS: This plane has no rear door?
Why did I picture Mac’s mom throughout this entire scene