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Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

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Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#151

Post by jacquesm »

colordrops wrote: post #147
ocschwar wrote: post #131

What utter bullshit. If they allow phones at all, then the threat cannot be an issue of a passenger sending a command out of one of these. The threat has to be the device itself. Now, a standard issue iPad is no threat, so we're talking about a customized device made to look like on. Except, if terrorists are going to the trouble to do this, they can just as easily put whatever bad thing they want to put into the cas…

Or just their ass. People can fit amazingly large things in their ass and it would bypass all airport detection. There is no real security with such big loopholes.

Bollocks. That's one thing the millimeter scan will pick up just fine.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#152

Post by Cyph0n »

hoodoof wrote: post #148

I've seen it quite a few times. Someone answers their cell phone mid-flight - BOOM! Down goes the plane, steep descent, passengers screaming, masks drop from the ceiling, until that phone call ends and the plane straightens up. Blanket ban on electronics is the only way to stop this happening. One time I was flying and someone had forgotten to turn off their phone until the plane was in the air and it interfered with…

I'm not sure if you're joking or not... Regardless, the ban does not affect cell phones.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#153

Post by sbuttgereit »

The article makes passing reference at the end, but isn't forcing these devices to be in checked bags actually more dangerous than some vague terrorist threat? While still relatively rare, it seems that Li-ion batteries catching fire in the cargo hold is still a bit more risky than the likelihood of what they're trying to address happening.

(I suspect they are acting on some more credible intelligence in this matter, but clearly not so specific that they can target their actions and have to come up with something that itself poses a risk.)

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#154

Post by hrrsn »

hoodoof wrote: post #148

I've seen it quite a few times. Someone answers their cell phone mid-flight - BOOM! Down goes the plane, steep descent, passengers screaming, masks drop from the ceiling, until that phone call ends and the plane straightens up. Blanket ban on electronics is the only way to stop this happening. One time I was flying and someone had forgotten to turn off their phone until the plane was in the air and it interfered with…

I'm guessing you forgot the /s tag.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#155

Post by [deleted] »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #87
JamilD wrote: post #62

I'm convinced this ban is motivated by a protectionist desire from the US-based airlines, to dissuade business travelers from flying on Middle Eastern airlines like Emirates and Qatar, which necessarily transit through countries like the UAE. If you're someone who flies for work, there's no way you're going to take a flight where you can't use your laptop.

Are the listed airlines the only ones that have direct flights to the US?

[deleted]

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#156

Post by hueving »

waqf wrote: post #146
jpatokal wrote: post #134

The Big 4 Middle East/Gulf airlines (Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Turkish) have been giving legacy US carriers a lot of grief lately, since they're both cheaper and better on essentially all counts, so I can't help but wonder if they have their finger in the pie here. Few businessmen will opt to fly long-haul if they can't use their laptops, and they're specifically targeting 9 airlines here, not just airports or countri…

[duplicate comment, admins merged two stories]

>Plus, can confirm that the ME airlines are highly competitive

Very, they are subsidized by their governments.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2015/03/airline-subs...

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#157

Post by jerf »

kobeya wrote: post #144
wapz wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you completely. Banning the devices is really not going to do anything but piss off customers (maybe make a few feel safer).

It's going to put laptops in the baggage where they can be pulled out and their data dumped for dragnet surveillance.

As much as I enjoy a good conspiracy theory, there's just not enough time for that, with the timing as tight as it is. A particular target with a focused scan, sure. Mass surveillance dragnet? No way. Not unless the NSACIAFBI have a way of dumping a hard drive without turning on the machine at speeds faster than a disk can even dump itself.

(Try pouring out your​ biggest spinning rust drive out over any port that can keep up with the drive. It takes hours nowadays. SSDs can bottleneck at the port instead of the drive, but you can't count on your target having one yet, nor can you count on the fastest ports being available. And we're certainly not going to mass-disassemble laptops to dump their drives.)

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#158

Post by waqf »

jpatokal wrote: post #133

The Big 4 Middle East/Gulf airlines (Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Turkish) have been giving legacy US carriers a lot of grief lately, since they're both cheaper and better on essentially all counts, so I can't help but wonder if they have their finger in the pie here. Few businessmen will opt to fly long-haul if they can't use their laptops, and they're specifically targeting 9 airlines here, not just airports or countri…

That's incredibly evil, but I'm sad to say that after some thought I believe you. It's hard to think of another reason why the ban would be given as a list of specific airports — and it just so happens that American carriers don't fly direct to any of the specified cities. (AA sells flights to a few but they are all codeshares, thanks JamilD for correcting my previous statement.)

(Plus, can confirm that the ME airlines are highly competitive. They're subsidized by their governments: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2015/03/airline-subs... (thanks hueving)).

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#160

Post by Cyph0n »

swatkat wrote: post #141
jacquesm wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of attack would this policy avert?

May be there's a loophole in x-ray machines that scan cabin bags, but not in the machines that scan checked-in bags? (just guessing, if at all "it was driven by intelligence of a possible attack")

Why is the ban targeting only these specific airlines? Are they so confident that a potential perpetrator couldn't fly in on Delta through Paris?
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