US & EU decide against banning phones & tablets on flights from Europe
Officials from the U.S. and the European Union have reportedly decided against a ban on travelers carrying devices like Apple iPads and MacBooks in the cabin while on flights from Europe.
The decision came after a four-hour meeting in Brussels discussing threats to aviation, according to the BBC. Previously, the U.S. was considering expanding a phone and tablet ban imposed on flyers from Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
Instead the U.S. and E.U. are considering alternate measures for dealing with threats against airlines, officials said.
Concerns had been raised about possible bomb plots using converted laptops, although no specific threats have been shared with the public. The U.K. also imposed a similar ban on six countries.
While reasons for rejecting the European ban are unknown, one may be worries about keeping so many lithium-ion batteries together in a plane's cargo hold. If a fire were to break out, the damage could be lethal, especially since the crew would have a hard time reacting -- if at all.
Such a ban might also create chaos given the number of business and tourist travelers who cross the Atlantic each day. Making sure electronics are checked would likely hamper already slow times at airports like Heathrow, Schiphol, and Tegel, and generate many complaints from people wanting to do work or at least be entertained on 7- to 8-hour flights.
Similar complaints have been made in the Middle East, but European traffic may be considered too big to ignore and only an indirect threat to the U.S.
The decision came after a four-hour meeting in Brussels discussing threats to aviation, according to the BBC. Previously, the U.S. was considering expanding a phone and tablet ban imposed on flyers from Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
Instead the U.S. and E.U. are considering alternate measures for dealing with threats against airlines, officials said.
Concerns had been raised about possible bomb plots using converted laptops, although no specific threats have been shared with the public. The U.K. also imposed a similar ban on six countries.
While reasons for rejecting the European ban are unknown, one may be worries about keeping so many lithium-ion batteries together in a plane's cargo hold. If a fire were to break out, the damage could be lethal, especially since the crew would have a hard time reacting -- if at all.
Such a ban might also create chaos given the number of business and tourist travelers who cross the Atlantic each day. Making sure electronics are checked would likely hamper already slow times at airports like Heathrow, Schiphol, and Tegel, and generate many complaints from people wanting to do work or at least be entertained on 7- to 8-hour flights.
Similar complaints have been made in the Middle East, but European traffic may be considered too big to ignore and only an indirect threat to the U.S.
Comments
Other than that: good that Apple appears to take product validation serious such that iOS devices in general can be taken off the list of potential hazards in flight.
In the long term certain TLA's will want people to fly in orange jumpsuits (bare feet naturally) chained to their seats and with no baggage in the hold or cabin.
Just because it might be possible to do something bad while flying.
I don't know about that. There's an awful lot of ways you could potentially use an orange jumpsuit to either hide, or manufacture explosives. I don't think they should take that risk.
And those seats look pretty risky, too.
Governments are just making it more and more inconvenient for the common man. Just because it is easier to have a blanket ban rather than actually doing some research and coming up with ways to identify unconventional threats, they do it.
If they decide to ban laptops from in-cabin luggage, what's to say that some terrorist won't come up with a way to trigger a laptop bomb that is in the checked-in baggage?
History has shown us that people will always find a way. "Necessity is the mother of invention".
I too noticed they no longer check the iPad is switched on - seemed a really easy, quick verification to me. I remember one time I was flying out of Bremen (Germany) a few years ago and I was hauled into a side room while they thoroughly examined my Samsung Note 10.1 - never had problems with the ipads but they took exception to the samdung haha.