Originally Posted by SJCFlyerLG
But oddly enough, the rest of the world doesn't seem to share this concern.
A growing number of places in Europe have jumped on the bandwagon in the past few months in regards to laptops.
Originally Posted by andrzej
Many of you youngsters think this is a new TSA thing and are you wrong. No one worried too much about electronic devices in carry-on baggage until the 1989 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The device that destroyed that plane—and killed 270 people—turned out to have been hidden inside a boom box.
After this incident, Congress briefly considered banning electronic devices in the cabin. Instead, the FAA asked airlines and airports to exercise more scrutiny over cell phones, radios, alarm clocks, computers, and other electronics. As a result, many travelers were asked to turn on their laptop computers at screening checkpoints, to prove that they functioned normally. (Some airports made powering up a computer mandatory; others required it only for travelers who were afraid to send their computers through the X-ray machine.) Laptops with dead batteries were sometimes taken to a special room and plugged in. By 1993, the process had become enough of a hassle that one company released a program called "Airport Shut Down"; it put your computer to sleep—rather than turning it off completely—in advance of the screening.
So taking out a laptop for x-ray screening is childs play when compared what some of us elders had to go through 20 years ago.
Some government authorities worried about electronic devices in carry-on luggage and in checked luggage going back to at least the summer of 1985.
It's correct that the powering on of laptops has diminished in the past 7 years at many US and international airports, but for the better part of the 1990s even laptops going through the X-ray resulted in requests for the laptop to be powered on.
One of the last major incidents I personally had with a laptop was in 1996 outside of the US (on a non-US airline) when I was told that "no carry-ons" (i.e., my laptop included) were allowed on certain flights. A few calls while at the airports got that sorted out and I got my laptop on board. (I had no blind faith in the laptop ever getting back to me in one piece otherwise.)
Even at places in South America and in Europe, US airline's retained security overseas had from time to time been requesting laptops be powered on even after 9/11. The last time I saw that with relation to a US airline's flight was in 2002-2003 at EZE, CDG, AMS, and FRA. At some of those places it was a rather frequent request if someone was selected for the dog and pony show of haraSSSSment/proto-haraSSSSment.