The co-pilot on an Air China plane decided that a commercial flight from Hong Kong to the Chinese city of Dalian was the PERFECT time to start chuckin’ clouds.
Unfortunately, the cloud situation got a little bit out of control.
The BBC reports that the pilot accidentally turned off the air conditioning in his attempt to hide his unauthorized clouds, mistakenly believing that he was turning off a fan that would have blown his clouds back to the passenger section. This caused the plane to lose cabin pressure, forcing the crew to begin a rapid emergency descent.
According to safety officer Qiao Yibin, the crew immediately began emergency procedures. The passengers were told to fasten seatbelts and the oxygen masks were lowered. Once the crew determined that the AC had been shut off, they were able to restore cabin pressure and bring the flight back up to cruising altitude.
Authorities are still investigating the incident to determine what, if any, disciplinary action they’ll take against the pilot. Chinese regulations prevent all flight crews from smoking, and passengers have been banned from using e-cigs since 2006.
Hey, maybe it turns out that vaping can be dangerous after all.
