It proved really dangerous to smoke during the flight hours
Cigarette Causes United Flight Diversion, Man Arrested
A traveler who lit a cigarette on a Continental Airlines plane forced the flight to be unfocused Tuesday night. The air travel plane was directed from Houston to Ontario, California, but had to be diverted to San Antonio, reports KHOU. According to San Antonio Express-News, “The anonymous man actually denied to put out the cigarette and quarreled with the air assistant. He was arrested by the San Antonio cops and taken into FBI custody”.
San Antonio police Captain Cris Andersen said the paper that the traveler could face national charges. According to the TSA website, ordinary lighters are allowed in carry-on luggage, but not checked bags unless they are sapped of lighter fluid. As far as the legality of smoking on planes, calls to United and the TSA to talk about mistake were not returned as of press time.
Previous week a California man was under arrest for smoking marijuana in the restroom of a JetBlue flight. He assumed he did nothing wrong because he has a therapeutic marijuana card, but air travel falls under federal jurisdiction.
