Passenger sets plane bathroom alight with sneaky cigarette

Smoking on planes has been banned worldwide since 2000

Smoking has been illegal on planes worldwide since the year 2000 (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A passenger on a flight from Tel Aviv to Bangkok caused a stir last week when they accidentally set the plane’s bathroom on fire.

The passenger was having a forbidden cigarette in the toilet of El Al flight LY81 on Friday, when the plane’s smoke alarm went off, the airline confirmed.

In a panic, the customer tried to stuff the smoking butt into the bin; however, being full of paper towels, the bin quickly set alight.

In a statement, El Al reported that crew were prompted to burst in with fire extinguishers and put out the small blaze partway through the 11-hour flight.

The aircraft was able to continue on its route as normal, and the crew did not contact law enforcement in Thailand to deal with the passenger on arrival.

“A passenger on a flight to Bangkok was caught smoking in the plane’s bathroom, and there was a fear of a fire breaking out in the cabin.

“The air crew and the captains took care of the incident immediately and with caution by using the dedicated fire extinguishers,” said the airline’s statement.

“The flight continued as scheduled and landed safely at Bangkok Airport,” an El Al spokesperson told the Times of Israel, adding that no damage was done to the plane.

“The passenger was warned and the issue was passed on for further examination by our legal department.”

The inflight smoker may still face legal consequences when they return to Israel.

Smoking has been banned on most airlines worldwide since the year 2000; US airlines first banned the habit on short-haul flights between 1988 and 1990, followed by all international and domestic flights from 2000.

In 1994, Canada was the first country to ban smoking on all flights operated by its carriers; meanwhile, China banned did not officially instate a ban on its airline’s flights until October 2017.

Virgin Atlantic banned smoking on all its flights in 1995, with British Airways imposing the rule in 1998, having first trialled some smoke-free flights in 1990.

However, the constantly illuminated “no smoking” signs still fail to put some flyers off: in September an Australian passenger was filmed being escorted off an aircraft for lighting up.

The same month a Wizz Air flight was disrupted when a passenger “insisted on smoking cannabis” after a four-hour delay on the tarmac.

Meanwhile a tragic 2016 Egyptair plane crash was alleged to have been caused by one of the pilots lighting a cigarette in the cockpit.

A report published in April 2022 claimed Egyptian pilots regularly smoked in the cockpit and the practice had not been banned by the airline at the time of the crash.