8.3 Carry-On Stowage, Seating Requirements & No-Smoking Rules

Carry-on stowage

The governing rule is Nig. CARs 8.9.2.7 — Accessibility of Emergency Exits and Equipment: no person may allow carry-on baggage or other items to block access to the emergency exits when the aircraft is moving on the surface, during take-off or landing, or while passengers remain on board on the ground.

Part 8 also restricts stowage that would obscure a passenger's view of the seat belt sign, the no smoking sign or placard, or any required exit sign. A coat hung over the back of a seat, a bag placed on a bulkhead shelf or a jacket draped across a sign defeats the purpose of the sign.

Where items may be stowed:

Where nothing may be stowed: on the floor at an exit row; in the aisle; in a doorway or vestibule; on top of a lavatory or galley unit; against an emergency exit; over floor proximity escape path marking; unrestrained on an empty seat for take-off and landing.

Practical enforcement. Bins fill from the front of the aircraft backwards, so late-boarding passengers seated at the rear commonly find no space near their seat. Crew must plan for this: start the stowage sweep early, use the rear bins for late items, gate-check bags that will not fit, and never accept the compromise of a bag "just for take-off" at the crew member's feet or in a doorway.

Seating requirements

No-smoking requirements

Nig. CARs is explicit: no person may smoke while the no-smoking sign is lighted. In practice, Nigerian commercial air transport operations run a continuous smoking ban with the sign illuminated throughout, and Part 8 requires that persons carried on board have a means of being notified when smoking is prohibited.

Scope of the prohibition:

• All tobacco products, in every part of the aircraft including lavatories, galleys, vestibules and crew rest areas;
• Electronic cigarettes, vaping devices and heated tobacco products — these produce vapour that will trigger smoke detection and, more importantly, contain lithium batteries that must never be placed in checked baggage or in a hold;
• On the ground as well as in the air, including during refuelling with passengers on board, when the prohibition is a fire-safety absolute rather than a comfort rule.

Handling a smoking event:

1. Stop it immediately and make sure the material is fully extinguished — the primary risk is not the smoke but the discarded item.
2. Locate the discarded material. A cigarette dropped in a lavatory waste bin or between seat cushions can smoulder for a long time before flaming. Check the bin, the floor, the seat pocket and beneath the cushions.
3. Notify the flight deck and the senior cabin crew member.
4. Record the event — the passenger's details, seat number, what was said and done, and the names of witnesses.
5. Report the occurrence through the operator's safety reporting system; smoking on board is both a safety violation and, on refusal to stop, a disruptive passenger event under the threat level framework.
6. Escalate if the passenger continues, using the operator's unruly passenger procedure.

Lavatory smoke detector tampering is treated more seriously still. Disabling, covering or damaging a smoke detector removes the aircraft's only automatic warning of a lavatory fire. Nig. CARs 7.9.1.8 requires each lavatory on a passenger-carrying transport category aeroplane to have a smoke detector system providing a warning in the cockpit or a warning readily detected by a cabin crew member. Tampering is reported to the flight deck immediately, documented, and referred for enforcement on arrival.