An Air China pilot tried to hide his vaping, force the descent of emergency

A vaping pilot aboard an Air China Boeing 737 aircraft would have made an emergency descent in search of breathable air on Tuesday.

The BBC, citing Chinese investigators, reported that the first officer of Flight CA106 from Air China had accidentally cut off the air conditioning system from the aircraft – causing levels of airborne noise. Insufficient oxygen in the cabin.

Flight CA106 took off from Hong Kong on Tuesday evening at 19:10 local time, bound for Dalian City in northeastern China. Data from FlightAware.com's flight-tracking website shows the Air China jet heading northeast at 35,000 feet when it began to descend around 19:39.

In the space of 18 minutes, the plane was descending to only 12,300 feet.

An investigation of the incident by the Civil Aviation Administration of China revealed that the first officer was trying to hide the fact that he had smoked an electronic cigarette in the cockpit from the captain of the plane, reported the BBC.

Instead of turning off a fan to prevent fumes from reaching the passenger cabin, it turned off the passenger air conditioning.

In response to an alarm triggered by the shutdown of the air conditioning, the flight crew dropped the aircraft emergency oxygen masks and initiated a descent at a lower altitude with breathable air.

The crew returned to normal cruise altitude once it was discovered that the air conditioning was, in fact, extinguished.

The flight safely lands in Dalian at 22:29.

According to the Telegraph, Air China said it has a "zero tolerance" policy for such behavior.

The use of electronic cigarettes in the cockpit is not allowed by the Chinese aviation regulations.

The investigation of flight CA106 is underway. It is unclear what type of punishment the offending driver will face.