Air Canada passenger angry that crew let a man smoke his e-cig during flight

An Air Canada passenger is angry at the airline for supposedly doing nothing to stop a man from "vaping" his electronic cigarette on a Toronto-bound flight two weeks ago. Elizabeth Cole told CBC News she noticed a man smoking the e-cig in spite of the airline's rules while waiting to board her flight in Calgary. She said she figured the crew would tell him to stop after take-off, but they didn't.

"I don't understand how flight attendants did not see him," she said, adding that the man didn't bother to hide the e-cig when the crew walked by. While e-cig makers claim the vapor won't set off the plane's smoke alarms, it is up to each of Canada's airlines to decide on an e-cigarette policy (Air Canada says it has banned them). Meanwhile, smoking e-cigs on American planes has been banned since 2011.

Cole said she and other passengers approached the crew after the flight to express their displeasure about letting the man smoke. But the airline employees didn't apologize for not taking action. "They just said, 'Well, you should have told us. Well, you should be looking out for puffs of [vapor] on your plane,'" she said.

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An Air Canada spokesperson reiterated its rules to CBC News that it doesn't allow vaping onboard. If the crew was aware of someone smoking during flight, they said they would have "addressed the matter immediately."