Inflight smoking

[6] Also, CAB banned and then unbanned smoking in 1984, with chairman Dan McKinnon saying, "Philosophically, I think nonsmokers have rights, but it comes into marked conflict with practicalities and the realities of life.

"[7] After years of debate over health concerns,[8][9] Congressional action in 1987 led to a ban on inflight smoking.

[24] Despite a prohibition of smoking, the US Federal Aviation Administration regulations mandate that functioning ashtrays be conspicuously located on the doors of all airplane bathrooms.

[26] In March 1995, the United States, Canada, and Australia agreed to ban smoking on international flights traveling between those countries.

In 1996, SAS flights to the Benelux countries, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the United Kingdom became non-smoking.

[citation needed] Aurigny Air Services which is based in the Bailiwick of Guernsey became the first airline in the world to ban smoking entirely on its flights, in July 1977.

[citation needed] The first smoking-related accident happened on 6 August 1937, when an international Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Prague crashed near Herina after a passenger lit a cigarette in the toilet, causing accumulated avgas fumes to ignite.

Normally, passengers found to be smoking on non-smoking flights will, at least, face a fine and, at most, be arrested and detained upon landing.

Due to stringent security measures, this often causes disruption; a flight may have to be diverted or a scheduled landing might have to be expedited upon arrival at the destination airport in order to escort the smoker from the plane.

Such regulations have on occasion met with defiance; in 2010 a Qatari diplomat was arrested upon arrival at Denver International Airport for smoking in the onboard lavatory on United Airlines Flight 663 and for making threats; when confronted by airline staff, he jokingly suggested that he was attempting to set his shoes on fire.

[43] E-cigarettes are also banned on flights, as well as transporting such devices in checked luggage,[44] because of fire risk from their batteries.