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TODAY smoking, including the use of electronic cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, is banned on commercial aircraft by most airlines and governments under strict health and safety regulations.
The first smoking-related accident occurred on August 6, 1937, when an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Prague operated by a Douglas DC-2 aircraft crashed in a forested area near Herina, Romania.
A passenger had lit a cigarette in the toilet, igniting accumulated avgas fumes, resulting in an in-flight explosion and fire. All six occupants of the aircraft were killed.
On July 11, 1973, a Boeing 707 aircraft on Varig Flight 820 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crash-landed in an onion field a few kilometres from Paris’s Orly Airport because of smoke in the cabin from a fire in a rear toilet.
Before the forced landing, many of the passengers at the rear of the aircraft had already died of carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation.
Investigators determined the probable cause of the fire could have been a lit cigarette thrown into a rear-toilet waste bin. The fire caused 123 deaths. There were only 11 survivors: ten crew members and one passenger.
After this accident, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned smoking in aircraft lavatories.
On June 2, 1983, a fire originated around a rear toilet – not necessarily from smoking – on an Air Canada flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Montreal, operated by a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 aircraft.
The in-flight fire spread between the outer skin and the inner decor panels, filling the aircraft cabin with toxic smoke. The spreading fire burned through critical electrical cables that disabled most of the engine instrumentation in the cockpit, forcing the aircraft to divert to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
Ninety seconds after the plane landed and the doors were opened, the heat of the fire and fresh oxygen from the outside created flashover conditions. The aircraft's interior immediately became engulfed in flames, killing 23 passengers who were unable to evacuate the aircraft.
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The Air Canada DC9 accident triggered the US FAA to implement new requirements: installing smoke detectors in toilets, escape lights to identify the floor paths to exit doors and increased firefighting training and equipment for flight crew.
After years of debate over health concerns, the US Congress took legislative action in February 1990 banning smoking on all US airlines’ flights.
On January 4, 1998, Dr Abid Hanson and his wife Rubina were passengers on Greek flag carrier Olympic Airways Flight 417 from Cairo, Egypt, via Athens, Greece, to New York City.
Hanson had a history of recurrent anaphylactic reactions and sensitivity to secondhand smoke, and requested a non-smoking seat.
When the Hansons boarded the Boeing 747 aircraft in Athens, their assigned seats were three rows ahead of the economy-class smoking area, and there was no partition between the smoking and non-smoking sections. Hanson repeatedly requested seating farther away from the smoking section, but the flight attendant would not move him to another seat away from the smoking section. Several hours later, Hanson reacted to the smoke and died during the flight.
Hanson’s widow Rubina Husain filed suit in a California federal district court, seeking damages under Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention. This article allowed damages to be recovered by international air travellers for accidents that occur during a flight. Applying this statute, the district court ruled Hanson's death an "accident" and awarded Husain US$1.4 million. This ruling was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decided an appeal in Olympic Airways v Husain. Before the case reached the Supreme Court, the lower courts found Olympic liable for Hanson’s death, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed, concluding that, under the definition (in Air France v Saks, 470 US 392 (1985)) of "accident," the flight attendant’s refusal to re-seat Hanson was clearly external to him, and unexpected and unusual in light of industry standards, Olympic policy and the simple nature of the requested accommodation.
On initial appeal, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed the finding of the district court that the flight attendant’s actions not only met the definition of "accident" under Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention, but also rose to the level of being "wilful misconduct" under Article 25. By exceeding that threshold, it removed a US$75,000 cap on damages.
The SCOTUS affirmed the Court of Appeals award of US$700,000 in compensatory damages against Olympic Airways. The question before the SCOTUS was whether a pre-existing medical condition aggravated by plane conditions could be considered an "accident" under the Warsaw Convention's Article 17, holding the airline responsible for the damages.
In a six-two decision in favour of Husain, Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the SCOTUS judgement. The court cited the previous decision in Air France v Saks, which held that: "Any injury is the product of a chain of causes....some link in the chain was an unusual or unexpected event external to the passenger." Further, the flight attendant's refusal to allow the couple to change seats was the "link in the chain" that caused Hanson's death.
Normally, passengers found to be smoking on non-smoking flights will face a fine and are arrested and detained upon landing.
Regulations have on occasion met with defiance. In 2010 a Qatari diplomat was arrested on arrival at Denver International Airport for smoking in the toilet on United Airlines Flight 663. When confronted by airline staff, he jokingly suggested he was trying to set his shoes on fire.
Despite a ban on smoking, US FAA regulations mandate that functioning ashtrays are conspicuously located on the doors of all aircraft toilets to dispose of a lit cigarette if someone violates the no-smoking rule.
Regulation 213 of TT Civil Aviation Regulations says the pilot in command shall ensure that no one on board an aircraft is allowed to smoke. In those areas in the cabin where oxygen is being supplied, the pilot in command shall ensure that required passenger information signs are lit.
 
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