Six months ago United Airlines was forced to ground its fleet of Airbus A321neo aircraft and cancel flights for the stupidest reason possible: 14 CFR § 25.791(a).
U.S. law requires no smoking signs that can be turned off an on by crew.But there’s no reason to turn them off anymore! United created the first non-smoking section in 1971. Delta became the first U.S. carrier to ban smoking worldwide in 1994. And no U.S. airline has been permitted to allow smoking since 2000.Planes that U.S. airlines order don’t even come with non-smoking signs that can be turned off anymore.
U.S. regulations require that no smoking signs can be turned off and on by the crew so that they could be turned on. But that’s no longer needed, and hasn’t been for decades. But the rules remained in place.
So for nearly 30 years airlines have applied for, and received without controversy, an exemption to the rule when adding planes to their fleet. United simply forgot to ask for this pro forma exemption when taking delivery of their Airbus A321neos for the first time.
As a result, United was flying planes that did not conform to U.S. regulations. The airline was forced to cancel flights, and request the exemption for the A321neo which they already had for the rest of the aircraft types in their fleet.
This was a little bit embarrassing for the FAA, and that’s spurred them to finally propose letting airlines have No Smoking signs that always stay on rather than having to be turned on by crew (or receiving an exemption, which is always granted). Here’s the filing which runs 23 pages.
The FAA has long recognized the incongruity between the prohibition on smoking in most commercial aircraft and the requirement for manufacturers to construct, and operators to operate, aircraft with “No Smoking” signs that can be turned on and off. For almost 30 years, the FAA has addressed this incongruity through equivalent level of safety (ELOS) findings1 and regulatory exemptions,2 which allows aircraft to have “No Smoking” signs that are continuously illuminated during flight operations. This rule makes such ELOS findings and regulatory exemptions unnecessary.
Manufacturers will be able to continue to manufacture, and pilots and operators will be able to continue to operate, aircraft with “No Smoking” signs that can be turned on and off or “No Smoking” signs that are illuminated continuously.
A lot of things require specific FAA permission which may not seem obvious. For instance, American Airlines gave away that they were adding doors to their business class seats on new aircraft when they asked the FAA for an exemption to permit this. The FAA initially rejected the request because the letterhead American used didn’t include its mailing address (they presumably could have just asked their own American Airlines Certificate Management Office instead).
Similarly, American needed FAA permission to hand out hand sanitizer at the start of the pandemic, even though passengers were permitted to bring on their own and the FAA had already determined this was safe.
Planes, by the way, still have ashtrays even though smoking hasn’t been permitted in decades. You’ll usually find them in or near the lavatory, because customers may smoke even though it’s illegal to do so – and they need a place to put out their cigarettes. Without ashtrays they’d be most likely to put out their cigarettes in the lavatory trash.. and light the paper tossed away inside on fire.