U.S. likely to expand airline laptop ban to Europe: government officials

There will be plenty to discuss if it actually happens, but in the meantime this is just a leak of a possible announcement. That&#x27;s not substantive and therefore it&#x27;s off topic here.<p>&quot;We might make an announcement&quot; is even weaker than &quot;We will make an announcement&quot;, a gold standard of weakness to begin with.<p>Notice the words &#x27;some&#x27;, &#x27;likely&#x27;, and &#x27;but&#x27; in the first sentence. This article walks back its own headline, like the previous one (<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>).

Wait, what? We&#x27;re putting laptops in luggage because we&#x27;re afraid that they are bombs. But laptops stored closely together in luggage with pressure changes can explode..and we don&#x27;t know how to handle that.<p>In the name of safety we&#x27;re introducing a restriction that makes people and airplanes less safe!

We have offices in Europe and US. While today we travel multiple times a quarter between the offices, I can see how people will not want to cross US borders no more than once a year. I also wonder how this (plus all the shenanigans on borders control, immigrations restrictions, etc) will affect budget and headcount allocations for international companies. I think we will see an expansion of companies building R&amp;D centers abroad and call it a day.

This is guaranteed to piss off the business community.<p>I can think of two possible reasons:<p>1- The administration is trying to distract people from the Comey scandal<p>2- The administration expects the current ban to be challenged in court and defeated, so they are expanding it to include non-Muslim countries<p>We live in interesting times.

Yeah... no. I&#x27;ve had a laptop stolen out of checked-in luggage together with other valuables. Seems like the US really doesn&#x27;t want to be visited by anybody anymore.

&gt; <i>DHS spokesman Dave Lapan said Kelly &quot;hasn&#x27;t made a decision but we continue to evaluate the threat environment and have engaged in discussions with airline representatives and other stakeholders about the threat.&quot;</i><p>So, our homeland security department has acknowledged that there is a threat and will discuss it with the airlines. This has been transformed into &quot;likely&quot; by the writer, and the &quot;some EU&quot; countries part has been expanded to &quot;Europe&quot; in the headline. This is why I&#x27;m skeptical about so many things I read in the news.

This sounds increasingly counter-effective or unenforceable.

Seems like Canadian and Mexican airports are about to get a lot busier!

<i>&gt; On the operational side, measures such as stopping online check-in for U.S. bound flights or ensuring U.S. flights depart from a dedicated part of terminals are among ideas being mulled, although no decisions have yet been taken.</i><p>How would stopping online check-in help with laptops? Wouldn&#x27;t a laptop ban be enforced during security screening of hand luggage?

Flying to North America from Europe? Please fly to Canada first and enjoy using your laptop onboard. Then take a short hop to your US destination on which you can also use your laptop since your flight originated in Canada.

Sounds like a detection technology problem. The article says it is very difficult to tell the difference between dense items on X-ray (i.e. battery v. plastic explosive). Anyone have suggestions for the TSA on better scanning technology?

DHS has already made it clear that you don&#x27;t want to enter the USA with any electronics if you value your privacy so perhaps this is a blessing in disguise.<p>It reminds me of the pathetic pack of attorneys general who shutdown Backpage and Craigslist&#x27;s hookup page, simply making it harder to find and intervene in human trafficking. DHS is simply making it <i>harder</i> for them to find bad guys. As if that were their goal.

That measure, if implemented, will boost USA business and tourism, isn&#x27;t?

Guess we won&#x27;t be doing international business with the EU....

So Trump basically just doesn&#x27;t want anyone to come to the US?

How is this even feasible? If Obama did this he&#x27;d be impeached almost immediately.