A United Airlines flight was delayed for four hours after a passenger smoked pot in the first class lavatory, prompting the pilot to refuse to operate the flight for fear of failing a drug test due to the second-hand smoke.
Pot Smoker Grounds United Flight—Pilot Refuses To Risk Drug Test
View From The Wing flags an incident that occurred on a United flight at San Francisco International Airport.
First our flight was delayed due to technical issues, then waiting for the paperwork to get completed someone smoked weed in the front bathrooms. They got removed from the flight then sat on the plane for 40ish minutes waiting for crew to figure out what to do. Crew was concerned they got exposed so we deplaned and are awaiting new crew.
Quote from the captain, “I have 30 years left of my career at United, I’m not willing to risk getting drug tested when I get to Houston.”
Currently sitting in the terminal at SFO, no sign of a new crew yet. Original departure 8:50 am, current estimated departure 12:30 pm. Given a $15 meal voucher and they have rolled out a snack cart at the gate.
The passenger added that this was onboard UA1679, which was a flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Cancun (CUN). You can see the pilot mentions Houston above (which first made me think this occurred on UA1687 from San Francisco to Houston), but I figure the crew probably had a SFO-CUN-IAH routing, meaning they’d end the day and have to re-enter the USA at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
UA1679 was indeed delayed on Tuesday, August 5, 2025:
I don’t think it’s likely or even conceivable that a random drug test would have found THC in his system: the aircraft is well-ventilated. Even so, I cannot blame him…and I may have done the same thing. That’s because both the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration take a “zero tolerance” policy to drugs. Even trace amounts can torpedo a career. So when the captain said, “I have 30 years left of my career at United, I’m not willing to risk getting drug tested when I get to Houston,” he was not joking.
I hope the passenger who had the bright idea to smoke weed in the lavatory is hit with a bill for the delay (including the $15 meal vouchers each passenger received that get you almost nothing in SFO).
CONCLUSION
A captain erred on the side of caution by refusing to operate an international flight after he was exposed to secondhand smoke by a dullard smoking weed in the lavatory. While the captain may have been too cautious, one can hardly blame him in an environment in which there is no tolerance for even trace amounts of controlled substances.
What a stupid jerk. In a state with legal edibles, why light up?
I mean, weed smokers are even less considerate than cigarette smokers – cases of smoking cigarettes onboard are few and far between, especially in the Western world. Furthermore, weed smells so much worse and is much more dangerous to everyone (there are different strains which affect behaviour in different ways).
Yep . Serious chemical dangers to the brain and lungs , as well as being the Most Lolo ( stupid ) activity .
In places where there are “locally legal” dispensaries , there are increased rates of mental illness and opiate addiction, ( but that was a foreseeable consequence ignored by the bid city dems .
The highest addiction rates in this nation occur in republican counties.
@Maryland: maybe you have some statistics to share but if you ever come to Minneapolis I would happily take you to Minneapolis Uptown and Downtown which are in Hennepin county as well St Paul downtown which is Ramsey county, which you can imagine are “super republican areas”, right? I avoid those locations at all costs but have to go there a few times a year since my dentist and some shops I go for over 20 years when those areas were decent are still there. It is absolutely sad what you see there. People turned into zombies just mumbling on the streets, most businesses are closed, crime rates are through the roof, etc… Also, since cannabis was legalized here, I noticed that there has been a much more aggressive behavior among drivers which many people associate to people driving under the influence of drugs. I am just sharing what I see here.
Check JAMA , The Guardian, and lots of Arizona newspapers and others. I went to school in Madison Wisconsin where weekend travel to Minneapolis was big city fun ( except for the Winter Carnival ) . I trust your judgement about what’s going on now. Sad. I voted to legalize marijuana , a decision I now regret. There are people in Walmart that smell so strongly of weed they make the pig farmers a delite.
Do you have any statistics to share?
All passengers should sue the 420 passenger the cost of their fare paid to United. And $100.00 for being arrogant and dumb at same time.
The pilot was not too cautious. He used the correct amount of caution. Beyond possible second hand smoke, marijuana smoke is oily and clings to hair and fabric and they have sniffer dogs in the airport. The selfish tool that smoked needs a time out in addition to fines.
It’s the same advice I give to my teenage nephew… Stick to edibles, bro. You can get high and nobody else will know. Don’t be dumb.
If you have to piss in a jar you’ll be discovered.
“I don’t think it’s likely or even conceivable that a random drug test would have found THC in his system: the aircraft is well-ventilated.”
Really Matthew? Drug tests during my Navy days as aircrew in the 80’s and 90’s were fairly sensitive, including for THC. As the pilot in this case said, why risk the a 30-year career? Regarding the toker in this case, I will bet nothing happens to him/her/them/they/whatever except maybe UA bans him for awhile. Being a SoCal resident, it is an incident involving weed in a very liberal state with liberal drug laws, IMHO.
@DavidM +1. I’m retired Navy and I wouldn’t eat poppy seeds since they can cause a positive drug test for opiates. The stakes are too high.
The pilot made an impressively bad decision that looks like hysteria or theatrics, neither of which is a good look for a commercial pilot. That said, the passenger was a prize idiot and should be substantially penalized and maybe have a month in jail on top of all financial penalties.
If USA airports would have outdoor smoking areas then even this impressively stupid passenger would likely have smoked out before getting on the plane. We need to have smoking areas, preferably outdoor ones – especially in states where The Devil’s Lettuce is legal – so people will not feel the dumb need to try stunts like this.
Or maybe adults can act like adults and actually control their impulses for a few hours while they’re in public? If you can’t survive an airplane trip without cannabis (or nicotine, or alcohol for that matter) then you have a serious drug problem and should seek professional help.
“The pilot made an impressively bad decision that looks like hysteria or theatrics,”
Yeah he definitely should have risked his ENTIRE CAREER covering for a spectacularly stupid pothead so the other passengers wouldn’t be inconvenienced. Good thinking.
Maryland your nuts!! the weed smoker will hopefully be banned from flying for 10 years and Federal fines for smoking on a plane!!
Yes that is what I said. Did you misunderstand my comment?
“I don’t think it’s likely or even conceivable that a random drug test would have found THC in his system: the aircraft is well-ventilated.” wrote Matthew. At first, I sort of agreed with that but, on closer look, believe the pilot is on the right track.
A drug test for a pilot is extremely high stakes, compared to a flight attendant. For a pilot, it is truly a disaster if they were banned from flying, all that effort and training.
There is a published small scale cannabis research paper from a Johns Hopkins lab looking into a similar question, what is the level when second hand smoke is breathed. It a few subjects, it exceeded the threshold for a positive test.
Ventilation on a plane on the ground is less than in the air, it seems to me. To add to that, the air nozzles in the lavatory are sometimes closed. The threshold of a positive test is sometimes 50 ng/ml for the screening test and 15 ng/ml for the confirmatory test. In the Johns Hopkins study, they looked at 20 and 50 ng/ml. One subject exceeded 50 and several exceeded 20.
Therefore, if I were the pilot, I would be cautious, too. It depends on how strong the odor was, when is the earliest possible time that the pilots could be tested, and how fast it is metabolized. Oral intake results in slow metabolism, like 5 days. Airborne is much faster.
Disclaimer: I just attended the Google School of Medicine and did a residency at the Holiday Inn Express medical center.
This might be the opportunity for United Airlines to give advice to its pilots.
If there is actually zero tolerance, then the commonly used 15 mg/ml level might not the right target for pilots. Depending on the test, does it test “meet or exceed 15 mg/ml” or does it give a specific number? If it gives a specific number, what if the pilot tests 2 ng/ml? As I said, one subject in the Johns Hopkins paper tested over 50 but several subjects (exposed to second hand smoke) exceeded 20.
“Waiting for paperwork”? Yeah, sure. That’s one of the oldest excuses in the book for explaining delays!
The United Airline pilot is in the right! No one has the right to question what he has worked so hard to be a pilot in first place. He is in charge of the plane period! The “High Sheriff” of tbe skies. Pilot-in-Command! FAA meeds to ban the smoking passenger for a long while for breaking a long know rule about smoking on board and delaying the flight further. They are selfish because the rest of the crew and passengers have rights to not breathe it. Let them DRIVE everywhere and think about what they did! Flying isn’t a right if you can’t follow the rules.
Smoking or edible, neither is a good choice to partake in before a flight.
Why do these nut-jobs (the passenger) treat flying on an airplane like a trip to their local bar or pot-hangout or whatever they do to constantly have to be “high”. Can’t they get through life for a few hours in a sober, civilized state? I’m sick of this party mentality that is assumed by these jerks to be accepted by everyone at every time around them. ,,,,,,,,,,,
With you on this..
Don’t blame the pilot. While the chance of him testing positive is as close to non existent as possible the risk is too high
I’m just going to say if this had happened on my airplane I would have made the same choice. The risks to my career, a job I love, the ability to provide for my family are just too great to take the chance.
While the risk of testing positive for drugs via second hand smoke may be remote, the penetration and smell of the smoke on the pilots, cabin crew, passenger clothing, and the interior of the aircraft, will raise all sorts of eyebrows. I agree with the pilot’s assessment and would stand by his decision regardless of what others may think. I trust that United will feel the same way, ban that passenger and send him the bill for the deep cleaning required. Then, UAL should compensate the inconvenienced passengers with sufficient “goodwill”