In the year 1973, 123 passengers were killed on a plane traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The reason for the accident? The pilot had to make an emergency landing on an onion plantation about four kilometers from Orly Airport after the cabin was found filled with smoke. The suspected cause? A cigarette that might have been thrown into a lavatory waste bin eventually caught fire. 

© barneyspender

This unfortunate incident marked a black day in the history of the aviation industry. These days, there are strict laws in place regarding smoking on airplanes, so doesn't it seem strange that we still have ashtrays in airplanes?  If smoking is banned on planes, what's with all the ashtrays?

Take a minute and think about it. There are strict no-smoking policies and no-smoking signs prominently enforced and illuminated on the plane, also reminding us that tampering with the smoke detectors is a criminal offense. And right below that sign, there it is. The Ashtray!

© Story Hippo

If we turn back the clock, we can see that most U.S. airlines started banning smoking back in the late 80s and by the end of 1990 it was prohibited on all domestic flights under six hours in duration. Thus, since 2000 the smoking ban has been pretty much ubiquitous internationally, all because of the above-mentioned Rio to Paris plane tragedy. 

That leaves us with the only reason as to why there are still ashtrays on airplanes. They must be super old planes, right?

No, thankfully, they are not.

Adding her views to the argument, a cabin attendant on a Cathay Pacific flight bound for London says, “You're not allowed to smoke, but some people still do it, so if you do smoke there has to be a safe place to stub it out.” She says that she catches somebody smoking in a plane about every six months.

Thus, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has listed ashtrays in bathrooms as a legal requirement for “minimum equipment”. Do you know what could go wrong if an airline does not cpmply with the above regulation? In 2009, a Mexico-bound British Airways flight was grounded after it was discovered not to be packing any ashtrays. Yeah, that's how seriously the FAA takes the matter. 

Those ashtrays are not an invitation for to you to smoke but rather a precaution and a sign of the FAA knowing that one of you will try to cop a smoke in an airplane.