My original "depends..." post should also have said that details of the incident, (and the attitude diplayed) would be passed to the commander, and he/she would then make a decision as to how to proceed (prosecution or warning).
I take it as a given tht any smoking incident would involve a full toilet waste and compartment inspection for hotstuff.
cargosales
There have been hull losses associated with smoking - varig 707 @ paris is the usual one cited. Banning smoking benefits airlines in a number of ways, customer relation being just one. There are also engineering issues to do with the cleaning and maintenance of aircraft, and insurance premiums for non vs smoking aircraft. Finally, there's legislation in other countries and potential litigation from pax and crew.