Bruce Dickinson sang "The Trooper" from backstage in Quito on 14 October. Iron Maiden played Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa, the audience lit flares, the smoke went straight at the stage, and the singer left it and did the song out of sight.
He had asked first. By the accounts of the night he pleaded with the crowd to stop, and some of them did not. Fan footage shows the smoke venting directly towards the band while they played.
The reason matters more than the gesture. Dickinson had a tumour at the back of his tongue, was treated for it in 2015 and has sung with that history ever since; he has objected before to people smoking near the front of the stage. A chest full of flare smoke is not a matter of taste for a man in that position, and the alternative to leaving the stage is losing the rest of the tour.
The band finished the set. The next dates run through South America before the sixteen North American shows announced for 2027, and flares at a stadium show remain the one thing a band cannot control from inside it.