A passenger was removed from a Spirit Airlines flight by authorities this week after lighting up a cigarette on a plane as it waited for its gate in Fort Lauderdale.
She was escorted off the plane after Broward Sheriff’s Office Airport District deputies “responded to a disturbance” on the flight, which flew to Florida from Detroit.
“On scene, deputies met with Spirit Airlines employees and were advised that they wanted a female passenger removed from the plane for smoking,” a the sheriff’s office said Wednesday in a press release. “Deputies made contact with the request, and no arrest was made.”
The incident was captured on video by a passenger sitting behind the smoker, Florida resident Alexa Majdalawi.
“I was actually the one who finally got a flight attendant to report her,” Ms Majdalawi told The Independent. “I was immediately behind her and asked her to put it out multiple times.
“I asked to move because I have asthma and I couldn’t breathe ... other people were looking around confused. None of us understood why a flight attendant didn’t come over.”
Ms Majdalawi, who was travelling back from a wedding in Michigan, told The Independent that she “can’t believe” the woman didn’t get arrested, adding: “The police were so chill to her about the whole thing.”
Smoking has been prohibited on all domestic and international flights coming into and out of the United States since 2000 – and other rules began prohibiting the habit on certain flights as early as 1988.
“This has been banned for a long time,” Ms Majdalawi told Fox. “What decade do you live in?”
