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The risk with laptops in the cargo hold isn't the blast force of explosions causing a hull breach, but fires. Now any terrorist who wants to bring down a plane
by enraged_camel 10y ago
The risk with laptops in the cargo hold isn't the blast force of explosions causing a hull breach, but fires. Now any terrorist who wants to bring down a plane simply needs to rig their laptop batteries to catch on fire, which is much, much easier to do than rigging it to explode.
- ulrikrasmussen 10y agoDoesn't planes have automated extinguishers in the cargo hull? I actually don't know, but it is something I would assume.
- tgummerer 10y agoThe article goes into more details on that. Basically the fire extinguishers are not powerful enough against lithium-ion battery fires.
- manicdee 10y agoBatteries contain their own oxidiser and fuel, so the only way of extinguishing a better fire is to remove the heat (fire triangle: fuel, oxidiser, heat). The best lay-person's method for extinguishing battery fires is flooding with cold water, which will be hard on an airplane at the best of times.
- tim333 10y agoLooking at a youtube video of a laptop battery fire https://youtu.be/pizFsY0yjss?t=3m15s https://youtu.be/pizFsY0yjss?t=3m15s I find it hard to see that taking out the metal box http://www.eyeno.net/2007/07/15/american-airlines-paul-bunyan-box/ http://www.eyeno.net/2007/07/15/american-airlines-paul-bunya... and then the plane.
- dom0 10y agoThese boxes are probably aluminium, which should be ignitable by another metal-fire.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]