Originally Posted by
inet32
This is ridiculous. The lost productivity is the least of my worries - not that's it's not also a problem - but the risk of THEFT is the Big One. I travel to do wildlife photography - My $2000 laptop is the cheapest thing I worry about being stolen. I don't own any camera bodies that cost less than $3000 and I have some that are $6000, and I always bring multiple camera bodies for backup.
We can only hope that the business community will make enough noise about this to stop it dead in its tracks. People always complain that big business has too much influence over government but this is a case where they could put that influence to good use!
And who says it's safer in the hold, anyway? Both the Air India bombing and the Lockerbie bombing were by explosives in the hold.
How do you carry on all that gear?
Anyways looks like it's mainly the EU airline security people who pushed back, not wanting all those devices with lithium batteries in the cargo hold. They demanded an urgent meeting, which is why the ban didn't go into effect on 5/11/17 as originally rumored.
Now if DHS says the ban for the Middle East hasn't caused problems, you had all those flights from there were devices in their cargo holds, then the EU people may not have a leg to stand on.