During the Covid pandemic flight restrictions of 2020 and 2021, many airlines were grounded for an extended period, causing extensive damage to the travel business.
When those restrictions began to lift in late 2021, the damaged airline industry began to recover.
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But a growing problem had begun to worsen and did not go away: bad passenger behavior.
Conflicts arose as passengers resumed flights, largely over the requirement to wear masks.
And passenger disorderly incidents increased by 47% worldwide in 2022, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The most common unruly behaviors are non-compliance by crew members, verbal abuse and intoxication, IATA said.
But another rule that continues to be regularly broken has recently attracted attention. Incidents of passengers vaping and smoking during flights have been reported on social media.
A man was recorded vaping on a United Airlines (UAL) – Get a free report flight on June 25. A video of the incident was posted on X (formerly Twitter).
On American airlines (AAL) – Get a free reportAnother passenger was seen lighting a cigarette in December 2022.
This guy really just lit a cigarette in mid-flight. @AmericanAir Thank goodness your female flight attendant snatched it out of his hands. pic.twitter.com/oRAeLFvLiO
– Sara Radosevich (@Sara_Radosevich) December 6, 2022
In a Nov. 26 incident on an unspecified airline, a flight attendant confronted a man who was smoking a cigarette. The episode was also captured on X.
Another passenger who saw the man light up had called for help using the call button above his seat across the aisle.
“You can’t smoke on airplanes,” the flight attendant was heard saying. “That’s against the law. You know that, right?”
A man lights a cigarette on a plane and discovers it pic.twitter.com/XyCCBlNlK8
– Crazy Clips (@crazyclipsonly) November 26, 2023
Smoking on airplanes has been prohibited for decades.
A travel expert gave a brief history of the move to ban smoking on passenger flights.
“The first airline to create a non-smoking section was United back in 1971.” wrote Gary Leff in View from the wing. “No US airline completely banned smoking worldwide until Delta (give it) – Get a free report in 1994. U.S. airlines could still offer smoking on board until 2000.”
“Yet, airplanes still have ashtrays! You’ll usually find them in or near the bathroom, because customers can smoke even though it’s illegal to do so, and they need a place to put out their cigarettes,” Leff added. “Without ashtrays, they would most likely put out their cigarettes in the bathroom trash and set fire to the paper they threw in.”
Matej Kastelic/Shutterstock
Some other incidents were also reported where passengers got into other types of trouble that only included smoking and vaping.
“A passenger who lit her cigarette during the flight says police beat her after flight attendants spiked her drink with alcohol,” Leff wrote. “And in 2020, a passenger lit a cigarette after refusing to wear a mask on board.”
This behavior, of course, didn’t just start after airlines returned to the skies after Covid flight restrictions were lifted.
“Before the pandemic, another passenger drank 4 bottles of beer, vaped an e-cigarette, and punched a flight attendant before his honeymoon,” Leff wrote. “Another lit a cigarette, drank his own drink and bit a flight attendant’s ear. While a man who burned himself with his own e-cigarette on board had the temerity to sue the airline.”
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