Smoking American Airlines passenger Dr Karen Halnon no longer teaching at Penn State
A professor who was arrested on an American Airlines flight after lighting a cigarette and ranting about President Obama is no longer teaching.
Dr Karen Bettez Halnon, 52, became an internet sensation after she was caught on camera lighting up shortly after a flight from Nicaragua landed at Miami International Airport on Saturday.
Dr Halnon, who taught sociology at Pennsylvania State University Abington, said she used the moment to protest 'US military global domination,' and claimed the country was responsible for giving her hero Hugo Chavez cancer.
A spokesperson for PSU Abington said that Prof Hanlon was still employed, but 'no longer in the classroom'.
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Dr Karen Halnon, left in her police mugshot and right in a faculty photo, is now longer teaching at Pennsylvania State University Abington after she was filmed smoking and ranting about the US on a plane in Miami
She was arrested for disorderly conduct and breach of peace.
The university's investigation into the incident is ongoing, according to the Allentown Morning Call.
She has taught at the institution since 1999, first as an assistant professor and most recently as an associate professor.
According to her faculty page, she is an expert on capitalism, Latin America and 'mad women'.
Dr Halnon has said that her statement was political and necessary after 'the US declared war on Venezuela'.
'I had to speak out now,' she told Philadelphia Magazine after returning home from her research in Central America. 'The situation is dire and urgent.'
'Any sacrifice I make for my own self, if it saves lives — there have been far too many lives lost due to US global military domination.'
Dr Halnon is seen smoking onboard the flight, in a video uploaded to YouTube and posted on Reddit
Dr Halnon claims she was 'tortured' by the FBI and TSA after she was arrested in Miami for disorderly conduct.
'I was put in a room with two fans in the ceiling, it was freezing cold for hours and hours and hours,' she said.
The professor alleged she was not allowed to go to the bathroom and had to wet her pants. She said she also defecated on the floor and was forced to pick it up while being 'laughed at'.
A number of passengers around Halnon became angered after she lit up on the plane. The professor said the act was a 'symbol'.
'Every revolutionary I know smokes,' she said. 'It was identifying with the revolutionary cause.
'Beyond that, it is a symbol that the United States is a smoking gun.'
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When fellow passengers flagged down a flight attendant to complain about her unruly behavior, Halnon blamed someone else for smoking and went on a rant, saying the US had 'declared war on Venezuela'
According to an eyewitness, she also allegedly said that Obama 'kills people on Tuesdays'.
Dr Halnon shouted: 'The United States has declared war on Venezuela. Venezuela has been declared a national security threat.'
'You're a national security threat,' a passenger remarked off camera.
'She's gangster' another passenger said, laughing.
Flight attendants warned the woman that the police would be waiting for her once the plane landed if she didn't calm down.
But she yelled louder, ranting that Venezuela 'previously owned the oil in Venezuela.'
'My great hero Hugo Chavez nationalized the oil supply so that people would own the oil...not Exon Mobil.'
A flight attendant, right, warned Halnon that the police would be waiting for her once the plane landed if she didn't calm down. Halnon said she knew she was going to be arrested and wanted to speak her piece
After she was warned again by a flight attendant that she was going to be arrested, Halnon remarked 'I know already.'
'They already say they are arresting me so I'm going to tell you more,' she told passengers while unbuckling her seat belt and standing up.
Dr Halnon was award her PhD from Boston College in 1995 with a thesis about treatments for women and hysteria.
She has two published books, and has more than 25 journal articles to her name.
The video of Halnon was captured by a passenger who then posted the video to YouTube and Reddit.
The poster, with the user name 'upside down dog', alleged that he was on the same flight as Halnon when he recorded her.
He wrote: 'While the plane was waiting on the tarmac for the police to arrive, she leans over to me and asks for a cigarette.
'They already say they are arresting me so I'm going to tell you more,' she told passengers while unbuckling her seat belt and standing up.
'She pulls one out of her bag and lights up. This is the point where I pull eject and run to the back of the cabin. The police arrive after 20 minutes and escort her off the plane.
'She only had a single drink on the plane (however, others told me she was pounding them back pretty hard in the terminal and she also was on prescription painkillers)'.
Halnon confirmed she only had one small bottle of wine on the plane that she said she mixed over the course of three drinks.
'I wasn't drunk,' she said. 'I don't need alcohol to protest. This is my life.'
Dr Halnon paid an undisclosed fine to resolve the matter in Florida, according to Local 10.
Earlier this month President Obama signed an order sanctioning seven Venezuelan officials for human rights abuses.
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