It takes years to become a commercial airline pilot, and that’s just accounting for flight training. After that, the interview process can add several months to the timeline. It’s understandable, then, that by the time a candidate becomes a pilot, they take their job seriously. They wouldn't be likely to throw away years of hard work due to a single passenger’s mistake.

A United pilot was recently faced with a situation that required tough decisions. The problem was described in a Reddit post that prompted hundreds of comments.

Aside from a minor technical issue, it seemed like business as usual on Flight UA1679, which was scheduled to fly from San Francisco to sunny Mexico. The departure was slightly delayed while they waited for paperwork, when a passenger picked an unfortunate way to bide the time.

Instead of reading a book or watching a movie, the passenger decided to smoke in one of the front bathrooms. This would be bad enough under normal circumstances, but their cigarette of choice wasn't tobacco. It was pot.

The passenger was promptly removed from the plane. It’s against the law to smoke on commercial airplanes in the United States, but beyond that, the fact that it was the green stuff further complicated the issue.

The hardworking flight crew was concerned that they might have inhaled secondhand smoke. The captain announced, “I have 30 years left of my career at United, I’m not willing to risk getting drug tested when I get to Houston.”

Pilots are drug tested at random. Which means they could conceivably be drug tested at any time. A commercial airline pilot who posts under @pilotpetefly on Instagram shared that he was drug tested twice last May, but he hadn’t been drug tested at all the previous year. So, although there was only a slight chance the United pilot would be drug tested on the layover to Houston, it was still a possibility.

Although the chances the pilot would have failed a drug test due to a little bit of secondhand smoke seem slim, it’s easy to understand why they would err on the side of protecting their career.

In the end, the passengers were asked to deplane. United provided $15 meal vouchers and brought a snack cart to the gate while the stranded travelers waited for a new crew.

So far, over 1,000 in-flight incidents involving unruly passengers have been reported to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2025. This is down from a peak of nearly 6,000 incidents during 2021. The incidents aren’t exclusive to United and involve American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and other domestic carriers.

A chief pilot at United can make over $300,000 a year, so it’s easy to understand why they wouldn’t be willing to jeopardize their career. Furthermore, pilots are legally permitted to refuse to fly planes if there is a safety risk. Recently, a pilot said, “I’m just not feeling it,” and told passengers to deplane because he was concerned about a mechanical issue. The passengers supported his decision, and many reacted with applause when he made the announcement. (Tamara Gane/Yahoo!)