Multiple reports have surfaced online in recent days indicating that Lufthansa has prohibited the carriage of Apple’s AirTag tracking device within checked-in luggage, based on a tweet (below) from Lufthansa’s official Twitter account.
Hi David, Lufthansa is banning activated AirTags from luggage as they are classified as dangerous and need to be turned off./Mony
— Lufthansa (@lufthansa) October 8, 2022
Chris Smith for Airways Magazine:
Airways reached out to the airline to confirm or deny said reports. The carrier responded by saying that it had “not banned airtags and there is no guideline or regulation by Lufthansa to ban airtags. There is a standing ICAO regulation on such devices, but this has nothing to do with Lufthansa or any other carrier.”
Because it allows passengers to track the location of their checked luggage after it has been checked in, the small tracking device has become a popular addition to the contents of many travelers’ checked luggage.
Without getting into the specifics of the battery that powers the AirTag, IATA policy states unequivocally that, “devices in checked baggage must be completely switched off.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s AirTag uses a small CR2032 battery, found in many wristwatches. It is not considered dangerous to the safety of a flight. The only way to “switch off” an AirTag is to remove its battery.
Of course, once you remove the battery, the location of this AirTag is no longer visible to its owner and incompetent airlines that can’t figure out a system to transport their overcharged customers’ luggage with any reasonable degree of accuracy can continue screwing up what should be a simple logistics process ad infinitum.
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