Smoking on board the plane almost ended in tragedy for tourists. During the flight, a foreign passenger couldn’t stand it and decided to light a cigarette, which caused a fire on board, was traveling from Tel Aviv (Israel) to Bangkok (Thailand). Fortunately, there were no casualties.
The incident happened on a flight of Israel’s largest airline, El Al. The plane was mid-flight at the time of the incident and continued on its way as planned until it landed in Bangkok despite the fire, The Thaiger reported.
An Israeli tourist suffering from nicotine addiction couldn’t stop himself from puffing on a cigarette in an airplane toilet, despite the ban on such actions. After that, he tried to put it out in a trash can, but he couldn’t. The fire started when a lit butt ignited toilet paper and tissues in a waste bin, triggering the smoke alarm.
According to the airline, the flight attendants and the captain promptly responded to the incident. They extinguished the fire with fire extinguishers. Nothing threatened the lives of tourists.
In connection with the incident, the airline company published a comment with the following content: “A passenger on a flight bound for Bangkok was caught smoking in the toilet of the plane, and as a result of his actions a fire broke out in the cabin. The crew and captain responded immediately and cautiously to the incident using special fire extinguishers.”
Since no damage was done to the aircraft, the airline decided not to involve the local police. However, the passengers of this flight believed that the nicotine-addicted traveler posed a danger to them. As a result, the perpetrator of the fire will face a lawsuit after returning to Israel. “The passenger has been warned and the matter has been referred to our legal department for further consideration,” the airline’s representatives said.
This is the second serious incident this week involving Israeli passengers bound for a beach in Thailand.
Earlier, an Israeli tourist was arrested upon arrival at Phuket airport on Thursday after security found 55 bullets in his luggage.