KARFA

The electronics will still be there, just in the hold.

Even if we put the fire risk to one side, is the suggestion that screening for hold bags is someone of a higher standard that carry on bags? If not then why does this reduce any risk? Setting off a device in the hold really doesn't seem that much of a technical leap from setting one off in the cabin.

Smid

Daily Beast is now reporting it as happening: Laptop ban, found via slashdot. Not sure of the credibility of the DB.

bot_beany

Well there is zero reference to anything to prove where they are getting their facts. So I would disregard it.

florens

Some more articles:

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/10/us-li...cials-say.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUSKBN1862QS

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-elect...bly-expanding/

bot_beany

To "some" European countries.
Rest assured we would be last on the list.

He will ban them on flights from left-leaning, pro-European countries.
We will be fine.

Honestly yes, he is that petty.

Tuggster

FFS I fly to Miami in less than 2 weeks

Worcester

Why Europe and not Asia? Russia has a huge domestic terrorism problem (even when they are not shooting down civilian airliners), as does India, China and the Philippines.

If UK does escape the ban and some European countries get caught could be a boost for BA's premium traffic. If though BA caught up in this then why would businesses pay for business class when employees can't work.

missdimeaner

If the US do put an 'electronics ban' on flights from the U.K. Would that affect the roll out of wifi on the BA fleet **?
I know that phones would still be allowed, but surely the main market for wifi would be for laptop and tablet users.
**BA do fly to other destinations

Tuggster

Premium Traffic to the states would drop significantly IMO

Tuggster

But how is it going to work if you are travelling via LHR from an EX EU location that is not on this list I wonder?

dakaix

Ah! But then they don't have any control over where the device would be!

If it's not up against a bulkhead this will obviously completely negate the issue, and even if it doesn't let's face it timer's are so old fashioned these days.

</sarcasm>

Eskimoboy

Air India's sales to the US are up 100% after the ME3 laptop ban. Does seem a tad strange to me, as a frequent India traveller I can't say I've ever felt that their security is any more stringent than the UK or Europe!

Good point on business paying for business class when employees can't work, might impact on premium sales for BA and other airlines..

Fitch

Well I am not an explosives expert nor have I ever worked in any security-related capacity, but my reading of the situation is as follows:

(1) the enemy has developed IEDs which are small enough to be hidden inside larger electronic devices - and hidden well enough to be missed by the "public" security screen.

(2) the IEDs rely upon manual operation: they're triggered with tge device placed against aircraft wall while in the cruise, the objective being a breach leading to hull loss through aerodynamic stresses. The enemy seem to have plenty of volunteers for suicide missions so it wouldn't take much coordination to attack multiple aircraft at once...

(3) devices in the hold are of course by definition immune to manual trigger in flight !

(4) we already know that hold luggage is routinely X-rayed and presumably it's also sniffed for drugs and explosives. A big plus is that it's under airport control for much longer than the 30 seconds or so hand luggage spends on the scanner belt... so may get closer scrutiny

(5) I imagine a risk assessment has probably been done which prices in a few hundred deaths a year from cargo hold fires and concluded that the total will significantly less politically impactful that several thousand in one day

Markie

It is being trailed pretty heavily on US TV today - without any opposition voices being heard.

Smid

So how true is this that the hold in inaccessible? Some popular movies of recent times seem to infer it is accessible from inside the plane, be it a hatch or something. I was reminded of this with the wonderful "It's always sunny in philadelphia" had it as a plot point, where one of them was intending to join the mile high club down there...