'Inebriated' Spirit Airlines Passenger Lights Cigarette Mid-Flight, Falls Asleep [Video]

Passengers aboard a Spirit Airlines flight to Minneapolis, Minnesota, were shocked after a man began smoking mid-flight and fell asleep with the cigarette still lit.

A video of the incident posted Thursday on YouTube showed the unnamed passenger in a dark t-shirt and khaki shorts lighting up a cigarette. He then takes one puff of the cigarette and lowers his hand before falling asleep. A co-passenger sitting across the aisle calls a flight attendant who rushes over and wakes the man. The passenger, who appears startled, says "oh my God” as the flight attendant takes the cigarette from his hand and stubs it out before asking to see his boarding pass.

A female co-passenger, who recorded the incident, said the man was drunk from the moment they both boarded the flight.

"This man was in my seat, and I thought he might be inebriated. Once everyone boarded the plane I got in my assigned seat and realized his seat was next to mine. I breathed in deeply, but told myself that I wouldn’t be that person to treat him differently,” the unnamed passenger said in her description accompnaying the video.

“Throughout the flight, I could hear him making loud outbursts. Roughly 40 minutes before we landed, he laid across the two seats with his butt towards me. He continued his loud outbursts and began aggressively flipping the tray open and closed, then he sat up,” she said, adding that the passenger then pulled out a cigarette and lighter from his pocket.

“I pulled out my phone and started to record as he lit the cigarette. The man across from us became nervous and flagged the attendant down as I recorded. The attendant put the cigarette out on the tray and took his boarding pass,” she added.

Once the flight landed, the St. Paul International Airport police met the plane at the gate and removed the passenger. It was, however, not known where the flight departed from and if any charges were filed against the passenger.