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U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

139 pointsby benevolabout 8 years ago

27 comments

cornstalksabout 8 years ago
Previous discussion from 10 hours ago: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14311073" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14311073</a> (56 points, 19 comments)
pleasecalllaterabout 8 years ago
OK, fine, so I just won&#x27;t travel to the USA anymore. I&#x27;m sure I don&#x27;t want my laptop to end like my suitcase (which has been seriously damaged somewhere between the Europe and the USA airports).<p>There are so many more interesting places in the world. If the USA doesn&#x27;t want my money, I think that&#x27;s not my problem.
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jasonkesterabout 8 years ago
No worries. For a few hundred dollars, I&#x27;m sure you&#x27;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.<p>And we&#x27;re totally safer from terrorists as a result.
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flexieabout 8 years ago
Flying is already such a dreadful thing. Even a one hour flight takes 5-7 hours when you count in all the extras. In my experience, a 1 hour flight like London - Brussels, is not much faster than a 7 hour flight like London - New York. Airports are a text book study in what monopoly and fear mongering politicians do.<p>- On the day of the flight you go from your departure city to the airport somewhere far away in the outskirts. That&#x27;s easily an hour, in places like New York or London it can be significantly more.<p>- Depending on whether it&#x27;s a domestic flight or an intercontinental flight, and depending on the airline, you are asked to show up anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours before the flight.<p>- In the airport, you sometimes go through four or five or six lines where you are checked; There is a check in, might be baggage drop, there is security, passport check by, check at the the gate, and sometimes even again when entering the airport.<p>Once you are through security you are forced to spend time in what is basically an overpriced shopping mall but dragging around your coat and carry-on.<p>If you fly with a budget airline, or if you fly to America, you are often forced to wait in crowded waiting areas at the gate, usually without seating for everyone.<p>Sometimes you are stuffed in a bus that takes you from the gate to the plane. These busses are literally stuffed like a Japanese metro.<p>On the plane, you often wait in your chair before takeoff because a connecting flight with passengers has not arrived on time or because the runway is too full.<p>The flight itself is rarely comfortable, but that&#x27;s the necessary part of the trip. Most flights could not be much faster than they are, except on long distance flights if supersonic planes were allowed.<p>At the arrival, you sometimes wait again at the tarmac.<p>Then you go through passport control again.<p>You warit for luggage.<p>And you need transportation from the airport into the destination city.<p>Upon arrival, you have spent what amounts to a full working day or more, even for short flights, and you are exhausted. If someone could take away all the assaults on passengers that the whole airport experience is packed with, flying would be much better, with or without your laptop.
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gjjrfcbugxbhfabout 8 years ago
Yet another reason not to visit the US... I wonder how many billion dollars the current administration will cost the states.
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lordelphabout 8 years ago
Any of you that follow Bruce Schneier might remember he has these &quot;movie plot&quot; contests, to come up with plausible threats which would incur another bit of security theatre.<p>The winner in 2007 was a plot where <i>water</i> would have to be banned... <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.schneier.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;archives&#x2F;2007&#x2F;06&#x2F;second_movieplo.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.schneier.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;archives&#x2F;2007&#x2F;06&#x2F;second_moviep...</a>
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demarqabout 8 years ago
So what happens if the terrorist first flies to canada... Then the US? Or what if they are already in the US? Is there something so special about the bomb that it can&#x27;t be made anywhere?<p>I&#x27;m just wondering how this does anything but ensure that battery fires will never be put out.
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luisivanabout 8 years ago
So they can backdoor them without you even noticing. Wonderful
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captainmuonabout 8 years ago
Who enforces that ban? It&#x27;s a bit sad that the European countries will go along with the ban. If they were a bit more confident, they could say &quot;nope&quot;. 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&#x27;t have to go along with every crazy idea, it is (at least still) stronger than it thinks.
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tim333about 8 years ago
That&#x27;s a bit of a pain. I wonder why a laptop bomb would cause problems in the cabin but not in the cargo hold.
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clamprechtabout 8 years ago
So all the terrorists have to do is convince the USA they&#x27;ve figured out how to hide bombs in humans and they&#x27;ll ban humans from flights.
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koonsoloabout 8 years ago
The September 11 attacks were domestic US flights of US airlines. So why only target flights coming from Europe?
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NightlyDevabout 8 years ago
What, is it so much better if a bomb goes off while in checked in luggage? What about fires? Stupidest thing ever. We do have security checks, oh wait, they are just for show and to annoy everyone.<p>&quot;Oh no! It&#x27;s dangerous, terrorists might do that! Let&#x27;s make a rule that has no positive effect!&quot;<p>Arriving in the US and being asked to give up all your keys and passwords is nothing new. &quot;It&#x27;s because we need to check for illegal content&quot;.<p>Cause that makes sense, if someone had something to hide nothing would stop them from downloading it over the thing called the Internet... &#x2F;s<p>Americans are damn stupid, and other countries are doing similar stupid things.
janocabout 8 years ago
I do wonder how many laptop bombs have endangered planes so far - vs. actual Li-ion battery fires.<p>Force laptops in the holds and watch planes crash when the inevitable battery fire happens. This policy will likely kill more people than the terrorist menace it is meant to protect against.<p>And that doesn&#x27;t even consider the loss of business, because people simply won&#x27;t fly without a laptop (or put it in the hold - considering how checked baggage is routinely treated). Not everyone is traveling for leisure and for business people a laptop is essential.
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achamayouabout 8 years ago
This is a major pain if you&#x27;re flying with small children. On long flights, tablets are an absolute godsend...
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agumonkeyabout 8 years ago
&gt; Laptops and tablets denied access to the cabin and added to checked baggage means that devices with a history of lithium-ion battery fires could set off a deadly conflagration in a cargo hold — where no one can put out the fires.<p>Very funny.<p>We get the message &quot;Europe is a terrorist breeding soil&quot;.
joelthelionabout 8 years ago
Is &quot;thedailybeast&quot; a reliable source?
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IdontRememberItabout 8 years ago
We have been scanning laptops separately for years... I am surprised that the scanners have not a common database of laptop scans to detect all the differences. So all the original laptops (no part modified) would get a clearance.
FullMtlAlcoholcabout 8 years ago
Yes! Next up, as a pedestrian, I am twice as likely to die unintentionally from a railway crossing than terrorism. Let&#x27;s ban trains. We need a catchy slogan to sell it, so let&#x27;s ban planes, trains, and automobiles!
hexane360about 8 years ago
Good job, xkcd: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xkcd.com&#x2F;651&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xkcd.com&#x2F;651&#x2F;</a><p>As a bonus, here&#x27;s what the TSA thought about laptops in 2009: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;forums.xkcd.com&#x2F;viewtopic.php?t=46966" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;forums.xkcd.com&#x2F;viewtopic.php?t=46966</a>
cyphunkabout 8 years ago
That anyone still carries a laptop to the US suprises me, considering any client data you have on it they already have the right to demand an unencrypted copy of.
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mcvabout 8 years ago
Considering your laptop was already going to be searched and probably have all your data copied, I&#x27;m not sure this ban is terribly harmful anymore. You&#x27;re probably better off leaving the laptop at home (or securely locked, encrypted, etc in checked luggage) anyway.
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diegoperiniabout 8 years ago
Goodbye cppnow, you were my most precious yearly enjoyment.
RangerScienceabout 8 years ago
One of the advantageous to living in California is that when I go overseas, I can tell people I&#x27;m Californian, rather than American.<p>Because people&#x27;s ideas of CA is 1) LA&#x2F;Hollywood, 2) SF&#x2F;SV, 3) Yosemite &#x2F; Tahoe, you get a pretty different response.
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easilyBoredabout 8 years ago
In x years we will all get undressed and proceed to board wrapped in the airline issued sheets.<p>If this is what it takes to defeat terrorists, I&#x27;m all for it...and more :)
nodesocketabout 8 years ago
Before jumping to conclusions we should acknowledge perhaps that US intelligence is hearing increased &quot;chatter&quot; or intel thus the reason for this policy.
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vivekdabout 8 years ago
A lot of comments very critical on the ban. America has intel - and good intel from a raid - that shows that ISIS has the capability and intent to hide a bomb inside laptop batteries to blow up passenger planes containing lots of people. Don’t the American people have the right to take steps to protect themselves from this?<p>This is a simple requirement that laptops be checked baggage and not carry on. That hardly seems draconian or extreme by any measure. I realize that this will inconvenience some people but against the very real and imminent threat of an actual discovered terrorist plans to use a laptop to blow up a plane, this seems like a very reasonable and rational step.<p>If certain people don’t want to visit or do business with America for that reason . . . I don’t think it’s such a terrible loss to lose dealing with people who are so self centered that they would demand that Americans risk the very real threat of deadly terrorist attacks rather than suffer the minor inconvenience of being required to check their laptops during flights.
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