Complete 180 on laptops in checked baggage

Problem is in a baggage compartment the fire from a laptop battery could hit the aerosols from consumer products. That would make quite an explosion, and might not be detected until it was beyond control. I think laptops will be OK for carryon use for some time, since a fire can be detected and dealt with quickly.
 
steingar said:
Problem is in a baggage compartment the fire from a laptop battery could hit the aerosols from consumer products. That would make quite an explosion, and might not be detected until it was beyond control. I think laptops will be OK for carryon use for some time, since a fire can be detected and dealt with quickly.
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Good point. As always, these are preventative measures. If such an event ever occurred, the public would question airline safety and why laptops were ever allowed in checked baggage. Nothing to start a flame war over IMO.
 
No flame war... just cynically noting that lithium ion batteries have been used in laptops for... 15 years? And it's not news that such a battery can fail in a fairly spectacular way. And that's accidentally. Wouldn't take much at all to include some stuff in the volume of a laptop to intentionally short the batteries after, say, a selectable delay. Stuff that wouldn't be at all unusual in the electronics filled volume of a consumer electronics device.

None of this is new. None of it is difficult. It's been a threat for as long as laptops have been checked. Why now?
 
Mistake Not... said:
None of this is new. None of it is difficult. It's been a threat for as long as laptops have been checked. Why now?
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Probably because it wouldn't have occurred to most people to even attempt to put a laptop into checked luggage, until they started being forced to do so earlier this year.

So now you have people who have heard about the laptop ban, but haven't heard of the much less published laptop ban lift, who probably still put their laptops in checked luggage.
 
The government acting like idiots and coming up with nonsensical, contradictory requirements only months apart? Surely not.

Government employment is the biggest welfare program we have, giving jobs to the otherwise unemployable, who then rise up the ranks based on time served. What a way to run a country :p
 
deonb said:
"WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is urging the world airline community to ban large, personal electronic devices like laptops from checked luggage because of the potential for a catastrophic fire."

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/a...gs-pose-fire-explosion-risk-faa-warns-n812496

So in 6 months we went from: "All laptops must go into checked" to "Ban laptops from checked".
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This comes from people who are afraid of baby formula and bottled water but believe that putting fluids in a clear plastic bag will render them harmless.
 
Per AA baggage rules, I remove the battery from my laptop, leave the laptop in my checked bag, and carry the battery in my carry-on. That's fine with me as I never use my laptop in flight.
 
A couple of things I saw in the article...

"A heater was placed against the laptop’s battery to force it into “thermal runaway,” a condition in which the battery’s temperature continually rises."

"In one test, an 8-ounce aerosol can of dry shampoo — which is permitted in checked baggage — was strapped to the laptop."

Bolding is mine.

This is sounding like the saccharine/cancer fiasco from the 70's were saccharine was force fed to rats in doses FAR larger than any human would consume. Perhaps the FAA was just trying to justify allowing laptops in the cabin. However they really seem to be forcing the issue by doing things with these laptops that folks normally wouldn't do. I mean, how many people strap an aerosol can to their laptop? Or have a heater operating in their checked bag?
 
Seems like banning the aerosol cans would be the no brainier
 
"oh no, my girlfriend had to buy new hairspray! Oh the calamity!"
Ban my laptop and you just banned the one reason I travel commercial
Edit: and I'll add that my livelihood depends on the 737
 
This may be the future...

upload_2017-10-23_6-12-20.png
 
They also just pop and make a mess. They dont create heat sufficient to ignite lots of material around them.
 
weilke said:
They also just pop and make a mess. They dont create heat sufficient to ignite lots of material around them.
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In fact, the "popping" tends to be cooling as the propellant boils away in the absence of something else burning.

I suspect that the test with an aerosol can and the lap top mentioned above was a "worst case" scenario where the battery causes a can containing a flammable propellant (propane, butane, or another low-boiling compound) to catch fire as well.
 
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