How A Law Student Project Grounded United Airlines Airbus A321

WASHINGTON - Aug. 26, 2024 - PRLog -- A project by several George Washington University law students which achieved an initial victory in 1973, and eventually triggered a world-wide revolution, has recently caused an unexpected, unnecessary, and bizarre grounding of United Airlines A321neo fleet, reports public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who both directed the student project and spearheaded the revolution which grew from it.

In 1969, as part of a public interest project, several law students prepared and submitted a detailed and lengthy legal petition (http://banzhaf.net/by/CRASHPETITION.pdf) asking the federal government to end the current practice of permitting smoking anywhere on commercial passenger aircraft, and instead to require the carriers to provide sections in which smoking would not be permitted.

As a result, a federal rule requiring separate smoking and nonsmoking sections aboard commercial passenger flights was adopted in 1973.

This first step of requiring no-smoking sections, deemed revolutionary and controversial at the time, started a revolution; one which lead eventually to a total ban on smoking aboard all U.S. aircraft.  It also triggered the nonsmokers' rights revolution which has now led to bans on smoking in most work places and indoor public places, as well at to smoking bans in many outdoor areas, and more recently even in private apartments, condos, and homes.

But before smoking was finally banned on all U.S. flights, the Federal Aviation Administration [FAA] adopted a rule which required that pilots be able to manually turn the overhead console "no-smoking" sign on and off.

But Prof. Banzhaf is happy to report that the FAA has learned a lesson from this fiasco, and has finally taken the first step towards amending the rule to no longer require that the "no-smoking" sign be capable of being turned "off" by the pilot.

On Friday it asked for public comment before it makes the change.  Assuming that there are no objections - and it's hard to see why anyone would or even could object - the proposed rule will become final on October 22, 2024, and new planes will then need no longer have a switch to turn off the "no smoking" sign.

Restrictions and then bans on smoking aboard commercial aircraft, as well as in many other places, were long overdue, and I'm glad that my law students and I were able to trigger that change.  The grounding of United's Airbus A321 was an unintended, unintentional, and unnecessary byproduct of the legal petition, but was caused solely by the combined negligence of the FAA and United, Banzhaf reminds us.

http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf