http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/10/u-s-to-ban-laptops-in-all-cabins-of-flights-from-europe
I guess we’ll find out tomorrow?
"The Department of Homeland Security plans to ban laptops in the cabins of all flights from Europe to the United States, European security officials told The Daily Beast. The announcement is expected Thursday.
Initially a ban on laptops and tablets was applied only to U.S.-bound flights from 10 airports in North Africa and the Middle East. The ban was based on U.S. fears that terrorists have found a way to convert laptops into bombs capable of bringing down an airplane. It is unclear if the European ban will also apply to tablets."
I find this confusing. I guess I’m under the assumption that they could somehow rig it to detonate in the hold, too. Which probably would also bring down the plane. Meanwhile, everyone in the cabin has to schlep physical books for the long flight because their Nook or Kindle is down in the hold. And the risk of fires in the hold goes up, too.
Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, either, @intparent, nor did it several months ago when they started it with the flights from the Middle East. I assume they are going off some risk perceived from intelligence gleaned from “chatter” but I don’t take much comfort in their solution with a ban.
Also, what about smart phones which are basically computers these days, right?
I’m not a techie though, at all.
Plus posing additional and different risks. From the article: “Laptops and tablets denied access to the cabin and added to checked baggage means that devices with a history of lithium-ion battery fires could set off a deadly conflagration in a cargo hold — where no one can put out the fires.”
Crud. This wrecks business travel big time. How will having Li batteries in cargo make everyone safer?
OTOH, invest in cloud storage and cloud-based apps. I mean in stocks of co’s like Amazon and Microsoft.
Remember this?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_terminal
Pack your “terminal” into checked luggage, take the battery with you, and keep your data and apps on the cloud.
I guess airlines could hand out loaner laptops in flight but much business stuff has to be secure.
Lithium batteries are the biggest threat that I can think of to safety, far more so than terrorists taking over a plane. I wish they would make everyone hand over their laptops, and they store them in a secure fire proof/bomb proof container (if something like that exists). Kill two birds with one stone.
When I’m queen, I’m going to put you in charge of airport security, @busdriver11! 
No way doschicos, too stressful a job! 
But I think the things that people fear, are often not what they should. Turbulence? A big nothing. Sit down and strap in, it won’t take an airplane down. Lithium batteries…beware.
just like… take of your shoes and tossing your kids apple juice…it is security theater. (do not get me started on people going into a naked body scanner like sheep)
Watching this closely as the family is heading to Europe in a couple of weeks. I know my son was planning to bring his work laptop. I like busdriver’s idea of securing them - I am also concerned about all these electronics being stolen out of checked bags.
LOL…I’m quite sure the airlines would tack on a fee to do this.
Related to the Mideast ban, I had read somewhere that the real reason was economic, to give an advantage to US carriers. Anybody remember that? I’ll have to search.
so true about security theater…everything done through a gauze of toughness instead of the less sexy items that would actually protect folks ( but not play well on cable TV…“liberals are now afraid of batteries.”)
The Mideast ban includes Ipads. Emerates gives out free Ipads to Busines and First.
I flew United to London recently. Their idea of a great entertainment package is to require you to bring your own Ipad, fully charged and login to the entertainment option on their app. I guess that option will be gone. Not that I care - an Ipad movie offered by the airline is not my idea of service when I’m used to seat back personal selection on other carriers. Oh, United also had seatback - if you wanted to watch one of their few options, you had to start watching when they started the movie. No personal control over when and which movie to view. Reminds me of flying in the 1980s.
Seems the bring your own device to watch in flight movies is the new thing. I saw that on an Alaska Airlines cross country flight recently. Good thing I’m not that much into inflght movies and just used my mp3 player to listen to my tunes on the flight.
Basically this is political theater to appeal to those who are a)scared out of their minds about terrorism and b)have very little real knowledge about how terrorism operates or the likelyhood of a laptop on board being used, for example, to bring a bomb on board. It is basically another ‘see how we are protecting you’ without it reducing the risk of terrorism much if at all. Ironically, it is far more likely a terrorist would put a bomb in a laptop that is checked in, the screening given how many pieces they are putting on board from what I know would be more likely to let a bomb through in a laptop then if you checked it in. You can add this to other things, I was just in our break room and there is a new executive order to establish a commission to work on the ‘serious’ problem of voter fraud…playing to fears, real or imagined, is as old as the hills when it comes to politics.
musicprint , there are 100x of trucks and at a airport like jfk 1000x of trucks and tons and tons and tons of unchecked things coming and going from the runways and onto the planes. along with 10000x of people at airports across the country coming on and off the planes and in and out of “secure” areas unchecked. which makes all the nonsense even more silly. just get a job at any number of postions (not hard to do) at the airport including the TSA ,cleaning. maintenance, baggage crew etc etc etc and you have free range with whatever you want to do TSA security theater appeals to many peoples fears of flying already. so people put up with the nonsense. (to be “safe”)
@zobroward:
No argument from me, security drills at major airports routinely point out the wholes in things like hiring and screening, and problems with TSA people and their background, and they are the likely routes terrorists will use, and if they are going to blow up an airplane they likely would do something like try to get someone on the inside to be able to put a bomb on board an aircraft in cargo, for example, rather than what we saw in the past like shoe bombs and such, it likely would be a lot more productive to do that then having someone with a laptop on board that has an explosive device. This new rule also implicitly plays on the fear that somehow in Europe there is lax security, that it is more likely someone from Europe is going to be able to bring a bomb on then the other way, and that in of itself is playing upon mythical fears, that somehow only the US cares about airport security (meanwhile, in many ways, we are still playing catch up with the best in the world, I don’t think US airport security is taken as seriously as it is in Israel, for example).
Like any marketing campaign, the ultimate goal is not necessarily to achieve anything, but rather to shape public perception in a way that favors whoever is running it.
Interesting people argue that something which already happened is unlikely, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daallo_Airlines_Flight_159.