TSA's lithium battery issue: a tech perspective
Jan 1, 2008, 4:48 pm
#1
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TSA's lithium battery issue: a tech perspective
Found this in today's Inquirer. I've met this guy and actually competed against him at an Intel convention and he's a pretty sharp guy. Don't agree with him 100%, but he makes a lot of got points about TSA screwing up travel and why he thinks TSA's lithium battery restrictions are ridiculous from a tech perspective
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...ying-miserable
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...ying-miserable
Originally Posted by The Inquirer
That brings us back to batteries, and their ban. Ostensibly it is there to protect against fires, I don't think anyone is dumb enough to think that an exploding laptop will punch through a titanium hull when it barely breaks a cheap plastic notebook shell.
Any person who tries this is going to have a lot of time to recover from singed pride in a maximum security jail. So, the idea is to stop fires, fair enough.
If you know anything about lithium batteries, they go boom, or at least go sizzle, when one of two things happen, they are being charged or discharged, and something goes wrong. Most have protection mechanisms to slow down the reaction or shut it off if things get too hot. The Sony batteries at the heart of the Dell fiasco had metal flakes in them that shorted internally causing a rapid discharge, heat and fire.
Under normal circumstances, you can't get a battery that hot. Wrap it in insulation and charge it, overcharge it, hit it with a hammer to cause an internal short, or otherwise discharge it rapidly, and you have an potential problem. That sort of problem is a severe hazard if it happens in the cargo hold of an airplane over the Pacific Ocean.
Which again brings us back to the TSA and its baggie fetish. Look at the rules for carrying batteries on here and here. They are full of common sense tips to keep batteries from blowing up, something we know happens several times a day by the sheer number of airliners dropping out of the sky in flames. Fair enough.
The problem is that the best thing it can recommend is to tape down the off switch of things that are checked in, which to police means opening and inspecting every bag by hand. Let me be the first to say it ain't gonna happen in this lifetime. Given the number of cell phones that go off overhead every time a plane I am on comes in for landing, I can pretty much guarantee this law will be as fastidiously abided by as speed limits on rural roads and jaywalking between the hours of 2 and 4am.
Any person who tries this is going to have a lot of time to recover from singed pride in a maximum security jail. So, the idea is to stop fires, fair enough.
If you know anything about lithium batteries, they go boom, or at least go sizzle, when one of two things happen, they are being charged or discharged, and something goes wrong. Most have protection mechanisms to slow down the reaction or shut it off if things get too hot. The Sony batteries at the heart of the Dell fiasco had metal flakes in them that shorted internally causing a rapid discharge, heat and fire.
Under normal circumstances, you can't get a battery that hot. Wrap it in insulation and charge it, overcharge it, hit it with a hammer to cause an internal short, or otherwise discharge it rapidly, and you have an potential problem. That sort of problem is a severe hazard if it happens in the cargo hold of an airplane over the Pacific Ocean.
Which again brings us back to the TSA and its baggie fetish. Look at the rules for carrying batteries on here and here. They are full of common sense tips to keep batteries from blowing up, something we know happens several times a day by the sheer number of airliners dropping out of the sky in flames. Fair enough.
The problem is that the best thing it can recommend is to tape down the off switch of things that are checked in, which to police means opening and inspecting every bag by hand. Let me be the first to say it ain't gonna happen in this lifetime. Given the number of cell phones that go off overhead every time a plane I am on comes in for landing, I can pretty much guarantee this law will be as fastidiously abided by as speed limits on rural roads and jaywalking between the hours of 2 and 4am.
Jan 1, 2008, 7:59 pm
#2
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The TSA is not the one banning lithium batteries. It was the FAA and the DOT that handed down that directive. The TSA is getting stuck enforcing it because they are the people who have access to the passengers and luggage. It's like the lighter ban, TSA didn't want to ban all lighters, those two congressmen pushed a bill through banning them and the TSA got stuck enforcing the law.
Jan 1, 2008, 8:12 pm
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The TSA is not the one banning lithium batteries. It was the FAA and the DOT that handed down that directive. The TSA is getting stuck enforcing it because they are the people who have access to the passengers and luggage. It's like the lighter ban, TSA didn't want to ban all lighters, those two congressmen pushed a bill through banning them and the TSA got stuck enforcing the law.
Jan 1, 2008, 8:21 pm
#4
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The TSA is not the one banning lithium batteries. It was the FAA and the DOT that handed down that directive. The TSA is getting stuck enforcing it because they are the people who have access to the passengers and luggage. It's like the lighter ban, TSA didn't want to ban all lighters, those two congressmen pushed a bill through banning them and the TSA got stuck enforcing the law.
Jan 1, 2008, 8:45 pm
#6
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eyecue, we love you like a bro' around this forum. And are grateful that you continue to post through the barrage of slings and arrows.
But you realize that the "take a bus, take a car, take a train" scenario doesn't fly around here.
Excuse the pun.
But you realize that the "take a bus, take a car, take a train" scenario doesn't fly around here.
Excuse the pun.
Jan 2, 2008, 11:56 pm
#8
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The TSA is not the one banning lithium batteries. It was the FAA and the DOT that handed down that directive. The TSA is getting stuck enforcing it because they are the people who have access to the passengers and luggage. It's like the lighter ban, TSA didn't want to ban all lighters, those two congressmen pushed a bill through banning them and the TSA got stuck enforcing the law.
Make FAA and DOT figure out a way to enforce it. TSA should have told them to pound sand. The advantage they have in this case is that it isn't a "law" passed by Congress.
Lithium batteries aside, his other points about travel and TSA are still valid.
Last edited by Superguy; Jan 3, 2008 at 12:01 am
Jan 3, 2008, 12:00 am
#9
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And you don't have to be a Comrade by working for TSA. 
TSA's already trying to get their grubby paws into those though. What happens when they finally do?
Walk, Comrade?
I still have yet to see why aviation is a sacred cow when Al Qaeda bomb trains in Madrid and the Tube in London and business goes on as usual here despite the fact that they attacked those targets the same amount of times as planes: once.
It'd be one thing if TSA ACTUALLY SECURED aviation for all the hassle that has to be endured. Yet we know how well it actually does that ...
TSA's already trying to get their grubby paws into those though. What happens when they finally do?
Walk, Comrade?
I still have yet to see why aviation is a sacred cow when Al Qaeda bomb trains in Madrid and the Tube in London and business goes on as usual here despite the fact that they attacked those targets the same amount of times as planes: once.
It'd be one thing if TSA ACTUALLY SECURED aviation for all the hassle that has to be endured. Yet we know how well it actually does that ...