Smoking lit cigarettes or anything else that produces smoke or flames is prohibited on commercial aircrafts in the United States.
That FAA regulation, the reminder you hear before takeoff, and instructions from a flight attendant, did not stop a passenger on Spirit Airlines from using an e-cigarette in the plane’s bathroom and setting off the smoke detector.
As a result, the 30-year-old passenger who was traveling from Detroit to New Orleans is now banned from flying on Spirit Airlines for life.
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A Spirit Airlines flight attendant told police she saw the passenger pull out an e-cigarette, inhale from it then blow the smoke into a bag.
After telling the passenger he could not smoke on the plane, the flight attendant spotted the man walking to the bathroom.
While the man was in the restroom, the plane’s smoke detector went off.
The plane’s pilot had to descend to 35,000 feet to turn off the smoke alarm, according to a report from NOLA.
A passenger told the flight attendant the man who set off the smoke alarm had been drinking from bottles of alcohol he brought on board and was “hiding under his jacket.”
In addition to smoking, the FAA also does not allow alcohol on flights unless it has been served by “the certificate holder” that is operating the plane.
When police met the plane at Louis Armstrong International Airport, the passenger denied smoking on the plane, and told police he did not know smoking on flights was not allowed, CNN reported.
A deputy sheriff who on the scene wrote that the man was “highly intoxicated” and smelled of alcohol.
While the man has not faced criminal charges, he has been banned from the airline for life, NOLA reported.