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Brace for Chaos If U.S. Expands Airline Laptop Ban
- mkmk 9y agoMaybe iPads will be a growing market segment, after all...
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- GuiA 9y agoiPads are part of the ban, as are Kindles. https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/12/heres-how-the-laptop-ban-works-on-flights-to-the-us/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/12/heres-how-the-laptop-ban-w...
- bluejekyll 9y agoKindles too?! Seriously??? Edit: I'm pretty sure the battery in my phone is bigger than the kindle, btw.
- wbl 9y agoSomeone has mastered the art of casting and forming explosives into shapes that look like batteries. Put a small battery in to turn device on, and al-Qaeda indulges its love of planes.
- obstinate 9y agoBe that as it may, if Kindle batteries are no larger than phones, they pose no additional risk relative to phones.
- pharrlax 9y agoThis is what I think, too. The Trump administration might be prone to racist paranoia panics but I don't see what objective this ban accomplishes unless there's some sort of legitimate intel.
- bluejekyll 9y agoBut aren't you allowed to just check the laptop? And so if it is a threat, wouldn't it remain a threat in the cargo area?
- bluejekyll 9y agoWhat happened to the turn on test? Or something. Or background checks on the passenger manifest. Or some other article of clothing that can be 'shaped'. Pretty soon we'll need to ride naked. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd start thinking that this isn't out of concerns for safety, but instead an attempt to stop international travel; stop the free flow of thought and people.
- tanilama 9y agoKindle...LOL, this bureaucracy is beyond me
- ClassyJacket 9y agoIt occurs to me at this point that airlines probably love the idea of passengers not being allowed to take any entertainment on board with them - that way they'll have to pay 8.99$ to rent a terrible quality movie.
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- flukus 9y agoI have a dell tablet hybrid, I have to fold it in half for takeoff because you can only use tablets and not laptops.
- krasin 9y agoFinally, a business use for a Cardboard VR headset: it has no electronics inside; just insert your TSA-approved mobile phone. On a serious note, I hope they will get a serious pushback.
- toyg 9y agoCan thin batteries really cause huge explosions? Can't they just ban laptops thicker than a certain amount? "TSA-approved size" would become a line in spec sheets, and things would get back to normal in a few months. The alternative is a serious hit to worldwide commerce flows. The more I think about this, the more I feel like "As long-established trade routes become unsafe, the empire slowly crumbles..."
- redthrowaway 9y agoThe thinking I've seen is about batteries being replaced by explosives. Even so, the US isn't the first to do this. China won't let you take Li+ batteries beyond a certain mAH in your carryon.
- deathanatos 9y ago> Even so, the US isn't the first to do this. China won't let you take Li+ batteries beyond a certain mAH in your carryon. The US already has energy limits for batteries in carry-ons[1], they're just not so boneheaded as to preclude laptops. [1]: https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ash/ash_programs/hazmat/passenger_info/media/Airline_passengers_and_batteries.pdf https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/as...
- gumballhead 9y agoThis was already true for the US as well. You can't fly with a laptop battery larger than 100Wh.
- bryanlarsen 9y agoThe 2015 MacBook Pro had a 99.5Wh battery, suggesting that it might have been slightly larger if not for the 100Wh airplane limit.
- detaro 9y ago> * China won't let you take Li+ batteries beyond a certain mAH in your carryon.* Various airlines and countries also had limits for years now. 100Wh seems to be a common number.
- moron4hire 9y agoChromebooks-delivered-at-the-arrivals-curb-as-a-service
- bluejekyll 9y agoSerious question. At what point is it an airlines responsibility vs. the FAA? I mean, private planes aren't required to do this. Then there are the shared (I forget the name) private plane companies where lots of people are in a pool of users of the planes. Where is the line between private plane, where the pilot/owner decides the risk, and public airline and FAA decide the risk? We need some sanity somewhere.
- dang 9y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14311073 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14311073 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14312210 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14312210 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14345574 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14345574
- jacques_chester 9y agoPersonally I'm bracing hopefully for cheaper business-class airfares.
- chevas 9y agoThe only constructive thing I can say is that there is no constructive criticism for the TSA. When are we going to put an end to this security theater that has been proven over and over again to do nothing? I stopped flying years ago. Not every one has this luxury.
- stevehawk 9y agoThe problem is this isn't for theater. A Somali passenger plane was bombed this way back in January, and the only reason it didn't cause a loss of life is the person did it at 10,000ft which is too low to cause catastrophic decompression.
- hristov 9y agoThis has nothing to do with the TSA. It comes straight from the Department of Homeland Security. The TSA would have to enforce the ban of course, but it ain't their idea. The whole campaign against the TSA is idiotic and it is entirely based on some people's nefarious plans to replace the TSA at various airports with private companies that will be able to extract monopoly fees from airlines and passengers. Let's not confuse the two issues.
- wahern 9y agoThe TSA has permitted use of private companies from the very beginning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screening_Partnership_Program I don't think either airlines or airports wish to get rid of the TSA entirely. The TSA provides a nice excuse for extracting security fees and subsidies from the public. They just want looser rules on screening so they can pocket more of the fees rather than fork them over as wages to screeners. And in any event, the security theater will remain as cover and a scapegoat for politicians, airports, and airlines in the [inevitable] case of a security breech. That said, the screening at San Francisco International is managed by a private company and they do a pretty good job, avoiding many of the really stupid problems exposed at airports elsewhere. It's still security theater, but done relatively competently.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
- rdtsc 9y agoSomewhere there is an airline in-flight entertainment manager rubbing his hands greedily "Aha! We'll rent approved devices and make people pay for shows on those devices". In Langley, VA someone in a dark office is also excited "Aha, we'll grab the laptops when they are checked in and root their firmware. It is almost too easy".
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