“The U.S. is considering expanding a ban on most carry-on electronic devices larger than a cellphone on U.S.-bound flights from 10 airports in the Middle East and North Africa to ‘likely’ include flights departing for the U.S. from Europe and possibly the United Kingdom, sources tell CBS News,” CBS News reports.
“The sources say Department of Homeland Security officials are weighing the advantages of expanding the ban against disruptions it could cause,” CBS News reports. “Government officials have been meeting with U.S. airlines on a nearly weekly basis and intend to do so again later this week. Officials say a decision could come in the next few weeks.”
“Former top TSA officials indicate to CBS News that a laptop ban had been at least discussed for well over a year dating back to an attack on a Somali airliner. The sense then was a total or widespread ban was impractical and would lead to outcry from business travelers who may elect not to travel if they can’t work on board,” CBS News reports. “Further issues include the amount of sensitive personal and professional information stored on laptops and tablets that would be suddenly forced into checked bags and the steep increase in the number of lithium-ion batteries in the cargo hold, which presents its own danger.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: On the bright side, if implemented, UK and European iPhone 7 Plus sales are set to explode, er… increase greatly in areas affected by the ban.
SEE ALSO:
US-UK electronic devices ban on planes came after plot to make iPad bomb uncovered – March 27, 2017
Trump administration bans iPads, laptops and other devices in cabin on flights from certain Middle Eastern airports; Britain follows suit – March 21, 2017
MDN take:
Wrong, travel to the US will collapse. Have already removed the US from my itinerary for business and pleasure since Trump has been elected
GOOD. Bye Bye. One less body taking up space in America is a good thing.
Mentality like yours is exactly what brought Hitler to power.
No, mentality of people like Prescott Bush is exactly what brought Hitler to power.
A half-wit argument connection only a lunkhead would agree with.
Along with all the money they bring and spend when they come here.
Well, you’ll enjoy Jihadist-burning Paris instead. Boycotting the most affluent market in the world isn’t real bright “Mr. Businessman.”
Pete: I’ll guess your reasons to travel were trivial, at best. Looks like you’re stuck in an ideological trap and you’re the only one with the ticket to escape.
Surely…if an experienced bomb maker can secret a bomb inside a laptop and make it sufficiently indistinguishable from any other laptop, then they will also have the technology to make it remote detonated from ‘a smartphone’ in the cabin. Secondly, a modern PMN can contain as little as 29 grams of high explosive. A modern smartphone can weigh on average 120 grams.
I call bullshit on these bans.
It is not about keeping people safe, it’s about the illusion of keeping them safe.
A small bomb in amongst the baggage is almost certainly likely to be surrounded by baggage which will significantly reduce the power of the explosion. A small explosive device deliberately detonated against the skin of the aircraft would be catastrophic.
Airplanes are proven to meet structural integrity requirements to achieve FAA and EASA certification. It would take a very large explosive charge in a very few specific places to cause catastrophic effects.
A cell phone bomb of available explosives in the cabin or cargo bay could cause serious injury, but not loss of an airplane. Airbus and Boieing et al must prove it by test or analysis to sell their planes.
Also it is the FAA that has had meaningful regulations for aviation safety, and statistics show they have steadily improved aviation safety over the decades. The TSA and similar European airport security fiasco on the ground is just a stupid theater and major annoyance that needs to end immediately. If Trump actually wanted to ease regulation and let business work, he should be starting with dismantling the Bush paranoid agencies TSA, DHS, etc. — not vital agencies that cost very little, like the EPA.
Baggage handles will have a hay day.
If this moronic administration is so concerned with saving lives then why don’t they declare cigarettes and alcohol illegal. i’m sure far more Americans are killed by drunk drivers, liver disease and lung cancer than terrorist attacks.
The baggage handlers will have a field day with new items to steal.
Conservatards are afraid of their own shadow and seem determined to turn our nation into an armed camp complete with razor wire fence. The Government Contractors, of course, are all for anything that makes them money. The Congressmen also know the same contractors will “contribute” in appreciation.
We do not need more security theater. We need less Airport nonsense and an expanded number of Federal Air Marshals who can take care of business.
Banning laptops and tablets from planes will just increase the ability of airlines to price gouge customers who wish to bring a tablet or laptop on their trip. The other thing is a laptop in the cargo hold is just as dangerous as one in the passenger compartment.
Word to Republicans, Conservatards and Gun nuts:
There is a certain amount of risk in almost anything you might do in life that is worthwhile. Having 10 guns does not make you safer than someone with 1 gun and probably no guns. Letting TSA agents fondle you at the airport does not make you safer, nor does getting a needless backscatter x-ray exposure. Asshole airlines and staff that ground planes because someone has a meltdown also does not not make you safer.
Planes crash sometimes and people get killed. A microburst can slam your plane to the ground like the hand of gawd and you are just as dead as if OBL did it himself by other means. Birds can get sucked into the engines- ask Captain Sully. Your plane’s engines can fail and lose hydraulic controls like this:
Good. They should ban anything with a battery from all airlines. Sanity prevails.
More security theatre brought to you by the paranoid idiots in DC.
Land of the Free, Home of the Brave? No, the bobbleheads demand to be protected and are giving up their rights to travel freely, allowing themselves to be subjected to invasive searches, and allowing president carrot top to remove your rights to carry personal devices. For what, the illusion of safety???
Hate to tell the paranoid public and gutless administration, but there are substances that are potent enough that milligrams of it could disable everyone aboard an airplane. And any mentally deranged person with a rocket launcher at the end of a runway could take out any airplane at any time.
You can choose to give up all your freedoms, as Trump suggests, or you can stand up and live like free men. The many hypocrites on this board can’t have it both ways.
Little bit of topic but also connected to this article: yes, I know, the UK will leave the EU in two years time. But at this time they are and will still be be part of this continent named Europe.
The UK may not leave the EU yet. Two years is a long time in politics. It’s entirely possible that a suicidal departure will be halted.
The entire subject is a political and economic shotgun wound in the UK. It’s divided the population (even families), and polarised all debate over here.
Of those who voted, the result of the (supposedly consultative) referendum was approximately 48% to remain vs. 52% to leave.
This closeness didn’t require a re-run or annulment: it’s still the subject of ferocious argument almost a year on.
Nevertheless, the process may be sabotaged or brought to an end in many ways. Given the hatred for the idea of leaving the economic trading bloc — and with the smart people ranged against it — the likelihood of the leaving mechanism surviving full-term is greatly reduced.
We shall see.
My only fear is that now Apple has an excuse to make the Mac Book family smaller, more expensive, and even less powerful.
🙁
This is why I now avoid transiting through the US at all costs. The hassle of flying there is insurmountable.
You know, just as much as you may be annoyed or fearful to travel to the US, we are just as inconvenienced to travel to Europe and return home. The order is ridiculous and does nothing to protect Democracy. It does the opposite. It’s authoritarian rule.
Our laptops are already scanned, opened and turned on. There is little left to the imagination. It’s either a working device and safe or a non-working device and dangerous.
The problem comes when TSA employees or the like, doesn’t do their job – or when they do, some of the employees are rude and disrespectful.
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21721904-impulsiveness-and-shallowness-americas-president-threaten-economy-well-rule