Smoke(rs) in cabin on EK412 SYD-AKL - 20 April 09

[Kelvin R]

Hi,

Well apart from running 3 hours late today's EK412 had some mid air excitement when about 45 min out of AKL the captain made a PA that smoke had been detected in one of the bathrooms and if someone was smoking that they should stop. In the background of the PA you could hear an alarm in the cockpit sounding. This was met at the same time with about 10 crew rushing the front right door bathroom. About 2 minutes later another PA was made that smoke was still being detected in a bathroom and that the captain would have to declare an emergency unless the alarm stopped. This resulted in a few more crew appearing to the bathroom and shortly after two young ladies emerged from the bathroom being escorted back to their seats.

They claim that they saw the ashtrays in the back of the toilet door and therefore decided that it was OK to smoke in the bathroom.

My first bit of unwanted excitement in 9 years of frequent flying and one I hope I don't experience again. Perhaps EK should add in announcements that smoking in the aircraft toilets is a fire hazard like QF and others do?