Who enforces that ban? It's a bit sad that the European countries will go along with the ban. If they were a bit more confident, they could say "nope". Or give out a directive that every passenger must be sternly reminded that Laptops are banned, and they the (EU) security personel shall turn a blind eye. Europe doesn't have to go along with every crazy idea, it is (at least still) stronger than it thinks.
U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe
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Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe
#22No worries. For a few hundred dollars, I'm sure you'll be able to register as a certified patriotic laptop carrier. Everything will go back to normal and the airline will get to collect yet another fee for something we used to get for free. And we're totally safer from terrorists as a result.
Only a few hundred dollars, What A Deal!
Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
A laptop bomb would presumably be fairly small in size and would probably have to be placed directly against some sensitive part of the plane in order to be effective. The cargo hold meanwhile is already reinforced and any bomb would most likely end up in a middle of a lot of baggage that would absorb most of the blast. It would probably force the plane to make an emergency landing but it's unlikely to be catastrophi…
The risk with laptops in the cargo hold isn't the blast force of explosions causing a hull breach, but fires. Now any terrorist who wants to bring down a plane simply needs to rig their laptop batteries to catch on fire, which is much, much easier to do than rigging it to explode.
Doesn't planes have automated extinguishers in the cargo hull? I actually don't know, but it is something I would assume.
Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe
#24Who enforces that ban? It's a bit sad that the European countries will go along with the ban. If they were a bit more confident, they could say "nope". Or give out a directive that every passenger must be sternly reminded that Laptops are banned, and they the (EU) security personel shall turn a blind eye. Europe doesn't have to go along with every crazy idea, it is (at least still) stronger than it thinks.
The airlines enforce it, who must if they want to keep being allowed to operate flights to the US.
Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe
#25Before jumping to conclusions we should acknowledge perhaps that US intelligence is hearing increased "chatter" or intel thus the reason for this policy.
Terrorists are not dumb, if laptops are banned from flights from Europe whey will use other flights, like domestic flights or flights coming from Canada.
Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
The risk with laptops in the cargo hold isn't the blast force of explosions causing a hull breach, but fires. Now any terrorist who wants to bring down a plane simply needs to rig their laptop batteries to catch on fire, which is much, much easier to do than rigging it to explode.
Doesn't planes have automated extinguishers in the cargo hull? I actually don't know, but it is something I would assume.
The article goes into more details on that. Basically the fire extinguishers are not powerful enough against lithium-ion battery fires.
Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe
#27That's a bit of a pain. I wonder why a laptop bomb would cause problems in the cabin but not in the cargo hold.
A bomb hidden in the cargo hold is effective if the intent is to simply blow up the plane by timer/remote/altitude. But if the goal is to hijack the plane, then a bomb in hand could be a more convincing negotiation tool.
How to you convince the crew that the laptop you're holding is actually a bomb?
Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Given that flights are one of the leading sources of CO2 pollution, maybe this would finally be something where terrorists made a service to humankind. (I am not being against technology, I just believe that modern humans can live perfectly well with flying much, much less.)
I'm not knowledgable about this subject but do you have any sources for that? After some quick Googling the best numbers I could find state that air travel is responsible for somewhere between 2%-4% of all human induced CO2 emissions and somewhere around 12%-15% of the emissions from transport sources.
Those percentages have outsized impact because you are emitting them very high.
So while they contribute to 4% of emissions, they may as well contribute to 8% of global warming. We don't reduce emissions just because. We want to stop the climate change.
We should just optimize the planes. I do hope that in 10 years batteries will be good enough for electric fan engines.
Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe
#29OK, fine, so I just won't travel to the USA anymore. I'm sure I don't want my laptop to end like my suitcase (which has been seriously damaged somewhere between the Europe and the USA airports).
There are so many more interesting places in the world. If the USA doesn't want my money, I think that's not my problem.
Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe
#30Yet another reason not to visit the US... I wonder how many billion dollars the current administration will cost the states.
At this point it's not about the current administration, it's about the trend line over 3 administrations. In choosing to do business in the US, I'm introducing a dependency that will last for several years at least.
For my own work I've had a preference for non-US clients for several years now.