A flight from Kansas City to Phoenix diverted when a passenger kept flicking the lighter they’d brought on board – and wouldn’t give it up when a flight attendant tried to confiscate it.
The crew declared an emergency after explaining to the passenger that if he didn’t turn it over they’d have no choice but to get the Airbus on the ground. On arrival, law enforcement removed the passenger from the aircraft and transported him to an area hospital for medical evaluation.
Passengers wondered how the man got a lighter through the security checkpoint, but passengers are permitted to bring a single lighter with them! They just can’t make fire while on board the aircraft.
Here’s the interaction between passenger and flight attendant, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Dr. Drew:
This man was simply asked to give the steward his lighter for the rest of the trip or the entire flight would have to be diverted. He refused.
You can’t have a functioning society with them. pic.twitter.com/eC0dgyvL7m
— David Santa Carla (@TheOnlyDSC) March 22, 2025
Meanwhile, video is going viral over a woman smoking a cigarette at her seat on an Istanbul – Cyprus flight – cabin crew confront her, struggle to retrieve the lighter, and the woman deliberately tries to light a seat on fire. Cabin crew poured water to avert it.
Passengers detain woman after she tries to smoke on plane and burn seat cover with lighter pic.twitter.com/fF7WHT9VYo
— The Sun (@TheSun) March 17, 2025
I recognized this incident and realized that it happened in 2019 but has been recirculating the past several days with several news stories about it today.
The first airline to create a nonsmoking section was United back in 1971. No U.S. airline fully banned smoking worldwide until Delta in 1994. U.S. airlines were still allowed to offer on board smoking up until 2000.
Yet planes still have ashtrays! 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.