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Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

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251–260 of 488 posts

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

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are security theater and they were only put in place because the guy in charge of what scanners were allowed at US airports happened to have a financial interest in the company that made the millimeter wave scanner. Yup. I have been to many airports in Africa and SE Asia that have only a metal detector, manned by someone who barely cares enough to stand there, and no one has successfully committed an act of te…

To be fair, the threat model of those countries doesn't include terrorist hijackings. You will surely experience a thorough screening in Israel or Frankfurt. Every major U.S. airport I've been to in the past 5 years has had ample bottle filling stations.

> You will surely experience a thorough screening in Israel or Frankfurt.

I think Israel is special, because they use behavioural profiling on you as well.

I've been through Frankfurt on an inter-EU flight, and we were put into the priority lane because things were quiet. The priority lane only had (has?) a metal detector, no body scanner.

So if the body scanners were really about security, why would they have a lane that allows you to bypass them completely?

I once flew from Frankfurt to Barcelona without anyone checking my passport (I am not European but have a valid residence permit for an EU country). Did online checkin and printed my boarding pass. No checked luggage, and automated boarding pass scanners at the gate. So yeah, really thorough...

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

#252
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an anecdote, I've flown United and Turkish across the Atlantic and it's a world of difference. In 2016 , the United airplane I was in still did not have a seatback screen and they expected all 200+ passengers to connect to the wifi to try to get in-flight entertainment. Of course no one got on. So all of us were left craning our necks trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was on the CRT in the aisle. Meanwhile, Tu…

It sounds like you were on a fairly old United plane (CRTs in the aisle). While there are newer planes with seat-back screens, their newest planes eschew any sort of seat-back entertainment completely. At least on domestic flights, it's been a while since I've flown internationally. This is a deliberate decision that airlines are starting to make. If most passengers are bringing a wifi-capable device (ipad, phone, et…

Spirit airlines has the thinnest seats I've ever seen on an airplane. It's a metal sheet with thin foam and leather over it. Certainly no room for any seat-back entertainment.

I'll gladly let the airline shove more seats in by thinning them out, than by reducing my leg room any further.

https://www.sanspotter.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/las_sa...

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

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are security theater and they were only put in place because the guy in charge of what scanners were allowed at US airports happened to have a financial interest in the company that made the millimeter wave scanner. Yup. I have been to many airports in Africa and SE Asia that have only a metal detector, manned by someone who barely cares enough to stand there, and no one has successfully committed an act of te…

> I'm mildly convinced other countries don't have this because the beverage industry can sell more water/soda you're forced to throw it away when you go through security. That makes sense, Japanese airports have distinctly non-airport prices for food and drinks even past security.

Anecdata: Japanese airport staff are also humans, and treat you like a fellow human. Most pleasant immigration experiences I've had were at Narita. My own country (AU) treats me like a criminal on _departure_.

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

#254
post #25

When I came to the US in 2000 it was a fairly optimistic and happy place. Now when I read stuff like this I always get reminded how this country went from pretty open to being scared, irrational and mean in the last 15 or so years.

A lot of this seems to be in the last 3 months

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

#255
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The science is only still out if you believe that mobile phones are causing cancer as well- ie for those who can't, or refuse, to understand science. For everyone else it's throughly settled

Sorry, what? "The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is part of the World Health Organization (WHO). Its major goal is to identify causes of cancer. The IARC has classified RF fields as “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” based on limited evidence of a possible increase in risk for brain tumors among cell phone users, and inadequate evidence for other types of cancer." I would not call that "thoroughly…

Good chat, despite it's mildly aggressive nature. Here's what:

So, an organisation that basically labels everything in the world as either a potential carcinogen or carcinogen [0] when the second lowest score they award still reads as 'potential carcinogen' is more powerful than actual evidence, accrued across enormous longitudinal studies, first from scandinavia [1] but backed significantly by australia [2] and integrated into a plausable mechanism for increases in >70 year olds [3] combined with a finding that would actually revolutionise physics and biology for suggesting a new mechanism for the interaction of electromagnetism and biology?

Alarmists are everywhere [4]. But that doesn't mean they are right. It's easy to listen to fear, but just because someone is screaming and crying doesn't make them right. Serious claims deserve to be looked at seriously, and this one has been throughly examined, in research that is continuing. And it continues to be debunked by huge datasets - not just the referenced studies but also the million woman study [5][6] and others.

So yes, I repeat, for anyone versed in science, physics and with their head screwed on straight, the science is settled, and I challenge you to demonstrate either a mechanism or a throughly vetted dataset that proves otherwise. And i'll remind you that hitting the first answer on google does not constitute research.

[0] http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/299632-cha...

[1] https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d6387

[2] http://www.cancerepidemiology.net/article/S1877-7821(16)3005...

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15378499

[4] http://theconversation.com/new-study-no-increase-in-brain-ca...

[5] http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/05/14/back-in-t...

[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24078152

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

#256
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an anecdote, I've flown United and Turkish across the Atlantic and it's a world of difference. In 2016 , the United airplane I was in still did not have a seatback screen and they expected all 200+ passengers to connect to the wifi to try to get in-flight entertainment. Of course no one got on. So all of us were left craning our necks trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was on the CRT in the aisle. Meanwhile, Tu…

I'll never fly United again. I had a similar experience for 14 hours. It isn't just the in flight entertainment. In my experience their staff are rude and borderline incompetent. There must be a poor culture in the company as a whole. My wife just flew with them and went nearly 10 hours without a meal while she was flying with our two year old. Edit: spelling

[deleted]

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

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what he said. He wrote: > It's also beyond bizarre that the US trusts Abu Dhabi's security enough to locate its only Middle Eastern Customs/Immigration preclearance facility, but not enough to let passengers who have gone through security bring tablets... It's a good question.

Indeed I didn't read the sentence correctly my apologies. However, I don't see that as a vote of confidence in them since they are still permitting flights. I think similar could be said of the TSA in the US - the DHS trust them enough to let passengers who have gone through security bring shampoo as carry on but not enough if those shampoo bottles are greater than 3.4 ounces, despite having gone through their securi…

> I think similar could be said of the TSA in the US - the DHS trust them enough to let passengers who have gone through security bring shampoo as carry on but not enough if those shampoo bottles are greater than 3.4 ounces, despite having gone through their security.

This is not about DHS trusting TSA, since the specific part of DHS that makes that regulates that is...TSA.

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

#258
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an anecdote, I've flown United and Turkish across the Atlantic and it's a world of difference. In 2016 , the United airplane I was in still did not have a seatback screen and they expected all 200+ passengers to connect to the wifi to try to get in-flight entertainment. Of course no one got on. So all of us were left craning our necks trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was on the CRT in the aisle. Meanwhile, Tu…

I'll never fly United again. I had a similar experience for 14 hours. It isn't just the in flight entertainment. In my experience their staff are rude and borderline incompetent. There must be a poor culture in the company as a whole. My wife just flew with them and went nearly 10 hours without a meal while she was flying with our two year old. Edit: spelling

Yeah! I have been flying for decades. Delta seems to have a cycle of climbing to excellence and falling. United Air Lines has always made me miserable reliably.

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

#259
post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Love it. I laughed more though at the comments to this - one person genuinely not sure if humor or not, and one guy, smart, that somehow managed to figure it out without a /s. Welcome to next generation of software engineers.

You must be new to the internet. I hope you're aware that people sometimes spout nonsense they genuinely believe in. I know it's HN, but I like to keep my guard up ;) Let's say you saw a similar comment on HN describing why the Earth is flat. Would you have reacted the same way?

It's plausible that someone could genuinely (if unjustifiably) believe that the Earth is flat.

It is far less plausible that they could genuinely believe they have witnesses, first-hand, several instances of a passenger using a cellphone on a commercial flight and causing it to crash, plus instances of navigation and other failures caused by personal electronics.

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

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most of the airports (if not all) that I have been lately, there are water refilling stations, usually close to the restrooms or after you pass through the security checkpoint. I usually pass security with my plastic bottle empty, and then refill it with those machines.

" there are water refilling stations, usually close to the restrooms or after you pass through the security checkpoint. " Done that, security check on one flight I was on at boarding forced all liquids to be emptied.

Dubai does that for some weird reason. They didn't use to until last year though.
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