U.S. to ban some airline passengers from carrying larger electronics

[webfact]

U.S. to ban some airline passengers from carrying larger electronics

By David Shepardson and Mark Hosenball

REUTERS

 

Passengers make their way in a security checkpoint at the International JFK airport in New York October 11, 2014. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities are planning to ban passengers travelling on certain U.S.-bound foreign airline flights from carrying into the cabin larger electronic devices in response to an unspecified terrorism threat, U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday.

 

The new rule is expected to be announced as early as Monday by the Department of Homeland Security, the officials said, adding that it had been under consideration since the U.S. government learned of a threat several weeks ago.

 

The source said the rule would cover a dozen foreign airlines flying from about a dozen countries, including some from the Middle East, and would include airlines based in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The officials did not name the other countries.

 

The officials said no American carriers were affected by the ban, which would apply to devices larger than a cell phone, but did not say why. Passengers would be allowed to carry larger devices in their checked luggage like tablets, laptops and cameras.

 

Royal Jordanian Airlines <RJAL.AM> said in a tweet on Monday that U.S.-bound passengers would be barred from carrying most electronic devices aboard aircraft starting Tuesday at the request of U.S. officials, including those that transit through Canada. Passengers can still carry cell phones and approved medical devices.

 

Al Riyadh newspaper, which is close to the Saudi government, reported that the civil aviation authority had informed "airlines flying from the kingdom's (Saudi) airports to U.S. airports of the latest measures from U.S. security agencies in which passengers must store laptops and tablets" in checked in baggage.

 

Al Riyadh quoted a civil aviation authority source as saying that these measures from senior U.S. authorities were relayed to the Saudi interior ministry.

 

Saudia Airlines confirmed in a tweet that U.S. transportation authorities had barred carrying larger electronic devices in cabin luggage.

 

The White House declined to comment.

 

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, David Lapan, said the agency has "no comment on potential security precautions, but will provide an update when appropriate.

 

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly called congressional lawmakers this weekend to notify them of the plan, congressional aides said.

 

In July 2014, the Homeland Security Department stepped up security of U.S.-bound flights, requiring tougher screening of mobile phones and other electronic devices and requiring them to be powered up before passengers could board flights to the United States.

 

(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Sandra Maler and Toni Reinhold)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-03-21

[ChrisY1]

This is gonna piss plenty of travellers!

 

[esprit]

Apparently there is no truth in the rumour that following on from this that any carry on luggage is the next on the list to be banned, followed by a total ban of checked baggage and then ultimately to satisfy the Homeland Security department advisors,  a total ban on passengers flying to the US also.

[oldcarguy]

22 minutes ago, ChrisY1 said:

This is gonna piss plenty of travellers!

 

And give the baggage handlers  extra Christmas presents a  little early  !

 

If this goes to all International flights  it will kill the tourist industry......

 

I will give Homeland Security a pass  and hope there intel is true,,,,,

but we are still taking off our shoes because of the "Shoe Bomber" so this could go on for a long time.......

 

and then we put all the lithium batteries into the cargo area........

 

I remember when Pan Am gave you a Pan Am Pen and paper , maybe we will be back to that :)

 

[AhFarangJa]

I can just imagine the chaos flying out from Saudi Arabia. It is bad enough now when the locals demand that the 25 kg. suitcase the size of a small dressing table is perfectly ok as hand luggage.........There is no way they are going to part with their beloved laptop !!!.....

[darksidedog]

Those long haul flights are when I used to catch up on lots of work. No laptop is going to make for a very long and boring flight.

 

[GuestForLife]

even though my passport allow me to do so, I have no desire whatsoever to visit USA, too much BS is going on overthere... there are plenty of more welcoming countries...

[kevkev1888]

No leftie judge gona jump in and try and block it as anti Muslim, un American, disriminating?

Oh it's not come from Trump, no worries then.

[Ramen087]

46 minutes ago, kevkev1888 said:

No leftie judge gona jump in and try and block it as anti Muslim, un American, disriminating?

Oh it's not come from Trump, no worries then.

I would expect a lawsuit to be filed.

[silverhawk_usa]

I don't see the logic in this.  If the laptop or "electronic device" is some type of explosive device, what is the difference if it is in the hold or the cabin?  If they are smart enough to create the explosive in the first place, they surely must have the intelligence to use some type of timer, pressure or altitude sensing device which does need to be manually activated.  Still "Boom". 

[Dustdevil]

3 hours ago, esprit said:

Apparently there is no truth in the rumour that following on from this that any carry on luggage is the next on the list to be banned, followed by a total ban of checked baggage and then ultimately to satisfy the Homeland Security department advisors,  a total ban on passengers flying to the US also.

flippant...considering the British shoe bomber and the underwear bomber

[sanukjim]

5 hours ago, esprit said:

Apparently there is no truth in the rumour that following on from this that any carry on luggage is the next on the list to be banned, followed by a total ban of checked baggage and then ultimately to satisfy the Homeland Security department advisors,  a total ban on passengers flying to the US also.

Was that statement "Tongue in cheek" or just dumb ?

[Lingba]

so where do you find this list of airlines??

[Grouse]

2 hours ago, silverhawk_usa said:

I don't see the logic in this.  If the laptop or "electronic device" is some type of explosive device, what is the difference if it is in the hold or the cabin?  If they are smart enough to create the explosive in the first place, they surely must have the intelligence to use some type of timer, pressure or altitude sensing device which does need to be manually activated.  Still "Boom". 

Maybe not explosive? Sarin? VX?

[farcanell]

4 hours ago, GuestForLife said:

even though my passport allow me to do so, I have no desire whatsoever to visit USA, too much BS is going on overthere... there are plenty of more welcoming countries...

I can understand that.

 

last time I went through LAX, a very rude security guard demanded I remove my jacket for scanning... no problems, a new rule in the USA, but he then added "you must not travel much"

 

idiot... rude idiot... my passport is overflowing with stamps, usually requiring replacement before expiry... I would warrant his would be virtually empty.

[elgordo38]

Will there be a bin at immigration to throw your computer into much like where you throw your water containers?? Either that or skip the flight.?

[esprit]

3 hours ago, Dustdevil said:

flippant...considering the British shoe bomber and the underwear bomber

Not to mention that if anyone dares to venture to the US then statically they are in greater danger of an extremist act from a US citizen than they are from any aircraft passenger to date.

[esprit]

1 hour ago, sanukjim said:

Was that statement "Tongue in cheek" or just dumb ?

Well if you could not differentiate that I would respond with who is really dumb !!

[KittenKong]

5 hours ago, Lingba said:

so where do you find this list of airlines??

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39336518

 

Quite a pain, really, and above all fairly pointless as others have pointed out.

 

The new rules apply to 10 airports:

• Queen Alia International, Amman, Jordan
• Cairo International Airport, Egypt
• Ataturk Airport, Istanbul, Turkey
• King Abdulaziz International, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
• King Khalid International, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• Kuwait International Airport
• Mohammed V International, Casablanca, Morocco
• Hamad International, Doha, Qatar
• Dubai International, United Arab Emirates
• Abu Dhabi International, United Arab Emirates

[tifino]

this is all just a money grab, to persuade all passengers to fly American etc airlines

 

what a rat's nest!!  Consider all the Code Sharing that goes on, with almost every airline, from every country

 

 

But, take example of Emirates airline  just like any other airline, they will stop over at the main airport of their home country.

 

So, if say we get on a plane in Aust, fly Bkk, next stop causes us to go thru AbuDhabi, and then we fly on to, say, the UK.

Maybe we have a one way world trip package, and then have it planned to head next to the US.

 

The mere existence of the Package flight itinerary (which includes the US at a later landing point in the itinerary) would therefore halt the world trip (if you want to use laptop), because someone joins up all the dots...

[Jamin123]

This will allow them lots of time to access the luggage, hack into the laptop and copy your data before landing in U.S.

 

This ban will not prevent terrorist to fly from one of these countries, change planes somewhere then carryon their laptop on a totally different flight dirctly into the U.S
 

[oldcarguy]

I think part of this  is security at those 10 airports cannot be trusted by Homeland Security......

 

So  what choice do they have but put a ban on them , its 50 flights a day

 

I wonder if you can pull the hard drive out of your laptop and carry that on ?

Many companies would  not want the company secrets  in the cargo area !

 

I wonder if this will spread to more countries , more airlines  and other items  like anything electrical 1

[thaibeachlovers]

21 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

This is gonna piss plenty of travellers!

 

If it PO the guys that want to bring mobile phones on planes so they can chat to the folks at home I'm all for it.

Up to me mobiles would be banned on all public transport. I'm sick of people shouting on their phones so the whole compartment/ bus can hear their chat. The people that use mobiles in cinemas should be ejected without a refund too.

The ban makes sense. I don't want some jihadist hacking the plane controls of an aircraft I'm on, but obviously that would apply to smaller devices as well.

[thaibeachlovers]

7 minutes ago, oldcarguy said:

I think part of this  is security at those 10 airports cannot be trusted by Homeland Security......

 

So  what choice do they have but put a ban on them , its 50 flights a day

 

I wonder if you can pull the hard drive out of your laptop and carry that on ?

Many companies would  not want the company secrets  in the cargo area !

 

I wonder if this will spread to more countries , more airlines  and other items  like anything electrical 1

I wonder if you can pull the hard drive out of your laptop and carry that on ?

Many companies would  not want the company secrets  in the cargo area !

 

Don't see why not, and if not possible just download all the info to a flash drive or small external HDD and wipe the sensitive info from the computer before checking it on. I'm more concerned about flight safety than I am about some  business traveller's info security.

[simple1]

10 hours ago, tifino said:

this is all just a money grab, to persuade all passengers to fly American etc airlines

 

what a rat's nest!!  Consider all the Code Sharing that goes on, with almost every airline, from every country

 

 

But, take example of Emirates airline  just like any other airline, they will stop over at the main airport of their home country.

 

So, if say we get on a plane in Aust, fly Bkk, next stop causes us to go thru AbuDhabi, and then we fly on to, say, the UK.

Maybe we have a one way world trip package, and then have it planned to head next to the US.

 

The mere existence of the Package flight itinerary (which includes the US at a later landing point in the itinerary) would therefore halt the world trip (if you want to use laptop), because someone joins up all the dots...

Currently only applies to direct flights to the USA from the listed airports. UK has applied the same ruling, but excludes Dubai. News report claimed it will effect 18,000 passengers a day into the US.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39336518

[thaibeachlovers]

9 hours ago, Jamin123 said:

This will allow them lots of time to access the luggage, hack into the laptop and copy your data before landing in U.S.

 

This ban will not prevent terrorist to fly from one of these countries, change planes somewhere then carryon their laptop on a totally different flight dirctly into the U.S
 

Can't see it's about computers IN the US. More about inflight security eg hacking aircraft controls.

[Crossy]

UK has followed suit

 

Quote

The British government has announced a cabin baggage ban on laptops on direct passenger flights to the UK from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

The ban, which also applies to tablets and DVD players, follows a similar US move affecting eight countries.

Downing Street said it followed talks on air security and was "necessary, effective and proportionate".

US officials said bombs could be hidden in a series of devices.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39343971

 

But with a different list of countries.

 

This link was in an earlier post

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39336518

 

[Lancashirelad]

This is going to cause chaos. I usually do put my laptop in checked luggage for long haul flights, but last time I took a domestic flight in Thailand, it wasn't allowed in checked luggage. There needs to be more uniformity with airport security in general. What about those who wish to carry a computer but have no luggage to check in?

[Gecko123]

If the risk this ban is intended to mitigate is so significant, why isn't it being implemented worldwide? 

Edited March 21, 2017 by Gecko123

[oldcarguy]

1 minute ago, Gecko123 said:

If the risk this ban is intended to mitigate is so significant, why isn't it being implemented worldwide?

its only the first day ,   if there is really something to this the other Security forces will be told ,  and the ban could expand.

 

I would bet that will happen at least in Europe