Britney Spears Admits to Lighting a Cigarette on a Flight, Apologizes

Britney Spears has admitted to lighting a cigarette while on a plane. On May 22, while on a charter plane flight, Spears lit a cigarette mid-flight. She reportedly put it out at the request of flight attendants and authorities issued a warning to the pop star at the airport once the plane landed.

On Friday, Spears addressed the incident on Instagram, confirming that what had been reported was true. Calling it “incredibly funny,” she wrote, “Some planes I’ve been on you can’t smoke mostly but this one was different because the drink holders were on outside of seat.”

In an accompanying video to her Instagram post, Spears looks happy as she holds a wine bottle split. The drink holder is indeed outside of the seat, though it’s unclear why that made Spears think it was OK to smoke on this particular plane. That said, while it is a violation of federal aviation regulations to smoke on commercial flights, it can be permissible on private charter planes, depending on if the owner or operater permits it and that the jet complies with FAA rules regarding passenger and crew compartment interiors.

After drinking vodka for the first time, she wrote that she wanted a cigarette. A friend then placed a cigarette in her mouth and lit it. “I was like OH SO THIS IS A PLANE WHERE YOU CAN SMOKE !!!,” she wrote.

Turns out that was not the case. “I do so apologize to anyone I offended but the flight attendants always make sure I’m way at the back of plane anyways,” she added. When authorities met her at the airport, she thought that they were greeting her “as support and I was like WOW I feel special.”

She finally put together that authorities were there because a flight attendant had alerted officials about the incident. Spears also claimed one particular flight attendant had tried to “embarrass” her and made sure she sat down when no one was on the plane yet, among other allegations.

“Nobody was on the plane for first 20 minutes and she wouldn’t let me get out of my seat I wanted to stand up !!!,” the pop star wrote. “She acted so weird about making sure I sat down and it was weird !!! I didn’t like the way she put the seatbelt on me and invaded my space !!!”

Spears is gearing up for a biopic based on her memoir, The Woman in Me, with Jon M. Chu tapped to direct the Universal Pictures movie, though he told Billboard in January that he couldn’t say much yet about the film. He did reveal that he’s a fan of the singer and said, “I want to do her justice and tell her story right. But we’ll see. We’re developing it now and it’s a long road ahead.”

From Rolling Stone US.