Shanghaiist: Some airlines banning laptop batteries

charged

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:30:34 +0800

Korean air casuallly asked as I was boarding the plane what laptop brand I had. They confiscated my Dell power cord on the flight there. I guess the person wasn't trained very well, I said, why do you need my power cord? I used my laptop battery on the flight, and got my power cord back after the flight. On the way back, they confiscated my battery this time. And it took me 2 hours to get it from lost and found after arrival. I asked at the counter, what if I just said I had an HP or Viao? The girl answered smartass and stoically -- "well then, I guess you'd have your laptop battery on the flight then. Move along sir." So much for security issues.

myrick

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:44:15 +0800

Given that the problem with the batteries only occur "while they are being charged" this is idiotic. The only place a problem could occur -- and this is still unlikely -- is when a laptop is plugged in in a first/business class seat. Baning people from charging their batteries while in flight would make a grain of sense -- though that would still be an overreaction.

David

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:12:50 +0800

Seems a bit of an over-reaction really. There's no chance of a lap top being left by itself when it's switched on when you're on a plane. Sou a smouldering lap top isn't exactly going to go un-noticed. So no lap top on your travels. What next?