Chinese airlines are being urged to prevent pilots from illegally vaping in the cockpit after an Air China flight fell 25,000ft when the co-pilot accidentally pressed the wrong buttons while smoking an electronic cigarette.
Since the incident, several figures within the industry have admitted the practice of vaping on the job is commonplace for Chinese pilots.
“Pilots get no supervision at all if they smoke in the cockpit,” one airport worker told the state-run daily Beijing News. “Neither the ground staff nor the passengers would have any way of knowing about it.”
Smoking is strictly banned inside the cockpit, because the act poses a
