This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
An airline passenger learned Thursday that the no-smoking rule applies to all types of cigarettes.
A woman flying from Bozeman, Mont., to Salt Lake City activated an e-cigarette and refused to put it out, said Nancy Volmer, spokeswoman for Salt Lake City International Airport. She said that when the plane landed, the passenger was escorted off the aircraft by airport police.
The incident is now a civil matter between the woman and the Federal Aviation Administration, Volmer said.
By the end of the 1990s, federal law banned smoking on all U.S. airline flights. The U.S. Department of Transportation considered the ban sufficiently broad to include electronic cigarettes, but to eliminate confusion, the agency last October announced an interim rule explicitly banning their use on all flights. That rule was finalized last month.
E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that turn a liquid into vapor, which is inhaled by the user for a cigarette-like buzz.
Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC