While there are, amazingly, still some Indonesians who fail to grasp why making bomb jokes on an airplane is a bad thing, everybody here knows that smoking on an airplane is strictly forbidden, right? Well…
A passenger on Lion Air JT 131 flying from Medan to Padang yesterday was discovered by a flight attendant lighting up inside the airplane’s bathroom during the flight.
According to Fendrick Sondra, spokesperson for Padang’s Minangkabau International Airport, the passenger was i fact aware that smoking was not allowed on airplanes but said he was so desperate for a cigarette (due to being a recovering drug addict) that he tried to sneakily light one up in the bathroom in the hopes he could get away with.
Obviously, he did not, with the smoke detectors immediately alerting a flight attendant of his actions. When the plane finally arrived in Padang, the passenger had to face questioning by security as well as some harsh punishment for his actions.
“The consequence (of smoking during the flight) is a lifetime ban on the passenger flying Lion Air,” Fendrick said yesterday as quoted by Tempo.
Not only that, Fendrick said the offending passenger’s identity would be shared with other Indonesian airlines who could then also choose to deny him service based off of his singular smoking offense.
However, it looks like the travel ban may be the worst the passenger has to face after he signed a statement that he would never repeat the mistake. Authorities chose not to charge him with violating the country’s air safety laws, a violation which comes with a maximum possible punishment of two years in jail and a IDR500 million (US$35,000) fine.
