# Serving alcohol in planes legally **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 2009, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756 "2009-11-24T10:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/41 "2009-11-27T06:23:55Z")
> [@NineToTheSky](#): > > It’s interesting that this is one of the few occasions I’ve come across on the Dope where the answer doesn’t seem to be known. The answer is known and has been told, but is lost in a sea of anecdotes. As soon as a plane takes off the laws which apply to it are those of the nation it is registered in, and this continues until it lands. This is not affected by which country its over. Airline policy on the other hand may vary. They may desist from serving alcohol to “underage” on a flight that commences from the US lest some puritanical idiot accuse them of corrupting the youth. I was in a KLM flight where we were told (before entering Saudi airspace) that no more alcohol would be served as we it was against Saudi law. Err no, Saudi law had no application until we landed, but it was a good policy to have, no need to piss of the locals on the flight. ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/42 "2009-11-27T07:31:55Z")
> [@TXCowboy](#): > > Don’t know for sure if it was a law, regulation or that airlines rule but I do know they would not serve it past that point. I thought at the time maybe they ran out of it and as you say, just making something up, but on the return trip (Atlanta to Dallas) a few days later, I experienced the same thing. After leaving Atlanta, I asked for a Coors and was told the same thing and after crossing the Mississippi, they started serving it. It was right there in the bottom drawer of the beverage cart the whole time. I don’t get why Coors beer wouldn’t have been served east of the Mississippi. Perhaps some law about passing off urine as beer… 😛 Maybe the plane was flying over dry counties in Mississippi. (This could be a slight tangent to the OP: Plane takes off from an airport in a dry county…or lands in a dry county…or flies over a dry county. What happens then?) ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/43 "2009-11-27T07:59:10Z")
Once again, the law that govern a plane once it takes off the juridiction hence applicable laws are those of the country its registered in. So an Saudi airline plane would (assuming serving alcohol is illegal) be violating the law by serving alcohol even if its flying over the Champange region of France, while Air France (presuming its allowed to serve alcohol) would not be committing a crime when it flys over Saudi airspace. It changes when you land or before you take off when the host country has juridiction. AK84 Barrister-at-Law. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/44 "2009-11-28T00:17:57Z")
**yabob** , I thought Kansas repealed its prohibition law in 1948, so why was this Vern Miller trying to do that in the 1970s? I’ve heard of him before, but I thought he was earlier in history. ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/45 "2009-11-28T00:45:27Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > Of course, this discussion brings to mind the old question “If an airplane flying from the U.S. to Canada crashes exactly on the border, where are the survivors buried?” typically, survivors aren’t buried. unless they’re into some weird shit. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/46 "2009-12-02T02:00:12Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > **yabob** , I thought Kansas repealed its prohibition law in 1948, so why was this Vern Miller trying to do that in the 1970s? I’ve heard of him before, but I thought he was earlier in history. They still prohibited public bars and sale by the drink until 1987. Which they contended made it illegal for the airlines to serve drinks in Kansas airspace. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/47 "2009-12-02T02:26:26Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > I’ve flown several airlines into Saudi Arabia. None of them will serve alcohol in Saudi airspace. Once you’ve cleared Saudi, or until you arrive, they will, but not before. What do they do with the liquor on board the plane when they land in Saudi Arabia? Isn’t it illegal to even possess alcohol in the country? I don’t expect that the flight crew would be given 40 lashes each for the alcohol on the plane when they land at Riyadh or Jeddah. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/48 "2009-12-02T04:16:53Z")
No idea how to answer the OP, but when I flew American Airlines to Germany back in 1991 for the military, there was still a smoking section, and they served me all that I wanted despite my being only 19. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/49 "2009-12-03T11:49:01Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > No idea how to answer the OP, but when I flew American Airlines to Germany back in 1991 for the military, there was still a smoking section, and they served me all that I wanted despite my being only 19. For that matter the law in California wasn’t always as strictly observed as it is today. I was below legal age for most of my undergraduate career, but often bought beer on the train while traveling between L.A. and San Diego. Getting wine with dinner in a restaurant was hardly ever a problem either. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/50 "2009-12-03T15:17:09Z")
Nothing to add as to the legal question, but Pat Conroy makes passing reference in his novel _The Great Santini_ (set in the early Sixties) to Marine aviators cramming bottles of Coors into every spare cubic inch of their jets whenever they were on the West Coast, and then flying it back east for themselves and their buddies. Which further reminds me about once reading that, during WW2, Army Air Forces bomber pilots stationed in fiercely hot North Africa would, when they got shipments of beer, take it up to 30,000 feet and cruise around for half an hour to chill it, then land and start the party! ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/51 "2009-12-04T18:35:47Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > What do they do with the liquor on board the plane when they land in Saudi Arabia? Isn’t it illegal to even possess alcohol in the country? I don’t expect that the flight crew would be given 40 lashes each for the alcohol on the plane when they land at Riyadh or Jeddah. Stored on the plane as far as I know. And no, as far as I know foreign nationals are exempted from the possession law in Saudi Arabia. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/52 "2009-12-04T18:47:28Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I have flown on airlines of Muslim countries that serve alcohol. I know I’ve seen drinks on Turkish Air and I think Emirates. Garuda didn’t have alcohol, but I remember their duty free shops had booze in Jakarta. Last time I flew to Dubai on Emirates i got quite blotto on their extensive wine supply. ---
**Author:** ![Livardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/43a26b/32.png) [@Livardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Livardo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/53 "2009-12-04T19:18:09Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > [slight hijack] > I have ben told that when Portugal still owned Macau flights to and from Lisbon were considered domestic (the longest domestic flights in the World) and [TAP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAP_Portugal)’s policy was to only serve alcohol on international flights. > [/slight hijack] Dude, you hijacked a plane thread! ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756/54 "2009-12-04T19:22:10Z")
> [@Livardo](#): > > Dude, you hijacked a plane thread! Call Jack Bauer. Maybe he can torture the discussion some more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/serving-alcohol-in-planes-legally/518756.md?page=2)