Holy smokes: Family of four forces Canadian flight to land in Bermuda

Four passengers forced a Halifax flight to emergency land over the weekend because the entire family — a mother, father and two sons — wanted to assert their right to smoke.

Oh wait, they don't have the right to smoke on a flight because that's illegal.

Nonetheless, a passenger found the family smoking in the bathroom on a flight from Halifax to the Dominican Republic, according to the CBC, and reported the incident to the crew.

[ Related: Family of smokers 'very expensive' for Sunwing ]

The plane had to make an emergency landing in Bermuda and a mechanic flew in to inspect the aircraft. Far from apologetic, the family reportedly refused to tell authorities if they had hidden any cigarettes on the plane.

The crew had to search for any remaining cigarettes and by then, their shifts were over. Sunwing says it paid a hefty price to land the plane, fly in the mechanic and put up all 170 passengers in a hotel for the night.

The first law banning airplane passengers from smoking when and where they pleased during flights was passed in the 1980s. Transport Canada has since made it explicitly illegal to smoke in an airplane bathroom.

[ Related: Generic cigarette packs could cut smoking, study suggests ]

Don't worry, smoker family, we missed those laws too. We also miss when Tim Hortons coffee shops were a puff of smoke. In 1994, a branch in Peterborough went smoke-free, in part to prevent the coffee and donuts from picking up the 'taste and smell' of nicotine, says a staffer in this news report. Mmm, nicotine honey cruller.