No Smoking??

[teeteringhead]

Just returned from a holiday, and was musing in flight on the No Smoking signs. Of course, these have been permanently illuminated now for many years (how many?), indeed; for longer than some of the jets I've flown in have been in service.

Question is: does anyone anywhere allow inflight smoking on passenger aircraft? If not, why the illuminated signs? I appreciate that the no smoking message must still be (forcefully) made, but wouldn't simple stickers be easier (and cheaper) than illuminated signs......?

[Alsacienne]

The signs are the product of the bygone age when the plane was produced. Why fix what's not broken?

[Mr Mac]

Teeteringahead
You should have seen the Brown Stains down the back of long haul 747 back in the smoking era. Always at the back of A/C towards the end, though before that it was common all over A/C. I did a flight down to Santiago in early 70;s with a Cuban cigar smoker next to me, I was 14 at the time, and smelled Smokey on arrival apparently to my parents.

Cheers
Mr Mac

[Asturias56]

I can remember the fabulous days when Air France introduced a no smoking zone. It was all the seats on the LHS of the aisle, the smokers were in the seats on the RHS IIRC

And the arguments that broke out when non-smoking Americans were put in the seats immediately in front of the smokers on TWA long -haul

[ZFT]

Originally Posted by Asturias56

I can remember the fabulous days when Air France introduced a no smoking zone. It was all the seats on the LHS of the aisle, the smokers were in the seats on the RHS IIRC

And the arguments that broke out when non-smoking Americans were put in the seats immediately in front of the smokers on TWA long -haul

Air Algerie did the same in the mid 80s except it seemed to vary flight to flight. After boarded a reshuffled occurred after the announcement of "smoking on the left/right"

[NineEighteen]

I remember being on a transatlantic flight from London and on the instant the crew switched off the ‘no smoking’ sign I heard a number of lighters being strummed(?) simultaneously! Followed by the smell of cigarettes slowly creeping forward from down the back.

This must have been late 1980’s - 1990’s. I’m not sure when smoking was banned.

[N707ZS]

Did I read somewhere that pilots can still smoke when in the flightdeck of certain airlines.

[redsnail]

You can still smoke on private jets. Takes an age to get the smell out of the aircraft.

[V_2]

Originally Posted by teeteringhead

Question is: does anyone anywhere allow inflight smoking on passenger aircraft? If not, why the illuminated signs? I appreciate that the no smoking message must still be (forcefully) made, but wouldn't simple stickers be easier (and cheaper) than illuminated signs......?

some have ordered the no smoking sign to be replaced with no electronic device sign, used for low viz operations presumably. KLM Embraers for example do this. No smoking is indeed a sticker. Sounds simple but my understanding is stickers tend to need specific CAA approval to be installed as they are seen as modifications, whereas a lit sign is aircraft equipment and wouldn’t require approval from regulators.

I believe Iran Air and Cuba still allowed smoking a few years ago. Maybe some other Middle East ones too. Not sure if that’s still the case.

[PAXboy]

I recall my Uncle, a life long smoker (until he died of lung cancer at 64!) saying of the 747-100 in the late 1970s: "If you do not want to see the film but wish to smoke, the 747 is a six seater aircraft."

He was referring to the back three rows of A+B and G+K where you were too far away to see the screen on the front wall of the cabin and were allowed to smoke. The air flow was (as mentioned above) from the front of the cabin to the rear.

[aerobelly]

Originally Posted by Asturias56

I can remember the fabulous days when Air France introduced a no smoking zone. It was all the seats on the LHS of the aisle, the smokers were in the seats on the RHS IIRC

Air Canada's DC8s had smoking on LHS, non- on RHS. Great for non-smokers on a Trans-atlantic flight. To top it off there was first a 4 hour wait on the concrete at Heathrow on a hot day in August with no A/C.

[tdracer]

I flew a Malaysian 747-400 from Kuala Lumpur back in the late 1990s - upper deck Business Class. The air was so thick with cigarette smoke that it was hard to breathe. Malaysian didn't have smoking/non-smoking sections, so the flight attendants help move us around to segregate the smokers to the back - it helped but not much. At the time, smoking had been banned on all the North American airlines, but not foreign airlines operating into North America.
It was a mistake I never made again - 12 hours in that sort of smoke was barely tolerable.

[Asturias56]

I'm sure I42 will agree with me of the glories of Kretek cigarettes on flights within Indonesia..............................

[Pip_Pip]

Originally Posted by NineEighteen

This must have been late 1980’s - 1990’s. I’m not sure when smoking was banned.

In my neck of the woods, I believe BA banned smoking in 1990 and Virgin followed suit shortly after. The EU officially banned smoking on all flights in members states in 1997. I'm not sure whether any UK carriers were still allowing it by then.

In response to the original post: never mind the No Smoking signs, you will still find ashtrays on new passenger aircraft. They routinely feature in MMELs, so you can't go flying if they're missing. (Disclaimer: I can't speak for all types and all regulators). The reason? You simply cannot trust people to obey the aforementioned signs.

[Krystal n chips]

Originally Posted by Mr Mac

Teeteringahead
You should have seen the Brown Stains down the back of long haul 747 back in the smoking era. Always at the back of A/C towards the end, though before that it was common all over A/C. I did a flight down to Santiago in early 70;s with a Cuban cigar smoker next to me, I was 14 at the time, and smelled Smokey on arrival apparently to my parents.

Cheers
Mr Mac

Mr Mac,

Those brown stains came from the outflow valves...and if you think they were bad, you were fortunate in not having to replace an outflow valve covered in tar.

The, unintended, side effect of smoking on board was this helped identify failed rivets / fasteners because there was a visible little brown streak around the edges.

[25F]

Much later - 1998:
https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-e...ng-all-flights

[S.o.S.]

Thank You 25F, most helpfu.

[nonsense]

Originally Posted by Krystal n chips

Mr Mac,

Those brown stains came from the outflow valves...and if you think they were bad, you were fortunate in not having to replace an outflow valve covered in tar.

The, unintended, side effect of smoking on board was this helped identify failed rivets / fasteners because there was a visible little brown streak around the edges.

[Asturias56]

And all that stuff goes through your lungs as a smoker......................

[chrissw]

Originally Posted by Pip_Pip

In my neck of the woods, I believe BA banned smoking in 1990 and Virgin followed suit shortly after. The EU officially banned smoking on all flights in members states in 1997. I'm not sure whether any UK carriers were still allowing it by then.

In response to the original post: never mind the No Smoking signs, you will still find ashtrays on new passenger aircraft. They routinely feature in MMELs, so you can't go flying if they're missing. (Disclaimer: I can't speak for all types and all regulators). The reason? You simply cannot trust people to obey the aforementioned signs.

I flew on BA Heathrow-Istanbul in I think Feb 1993, in any case less than a year after my son was born in April 1992. It was a then very new A320 (I think!) and smoking was allowed in the back couple of rows.