

After Fires, Ban on phones and laptops looking possible on Boeing 787 flights - chrisacky
http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/19/british-airways-may-be-banning-laptops-phones-and-other-lithium-ion-battery-devices-after-boeing-787-fires/

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swombat
_However, a British Airways PR representative that I contacted said there has
been no change to airline policy regarding smartphones, tablets, or laptops,
and asked to see the IATA notification. The representative did say that it was
conceivable that a change had been made to British Airways’ cargo-carrying
regulations — in addition to its passenger service, the company runs IAG
Cargo, a commercial cargo shipping service – but had no personal knowledge of
any changes as of early Sunday morning._

Article denies the headline... Move along.

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dalke
John Koetsier of VentureBeat apparently doesn't know how to do research.
Quoting from the article, they are "attempting to access a copy of the IATA
bulletin." The changes were easy to find:
[http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr/Documents/DGR54-Adden...](http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr/Documents/DGR54-Addendum1-Dec27-EN.pdf)

The changes are even nicely highlighted in yellow.

Note _especially_ the parts "This prohibition does not apply to: ... lithium
batteries (rechargeable and non-rechargeable) covered by the Provisions for
Dangerous Goods Carried by Passengers or Crew (see 2.3.2 to 2.3.5 and Table
2.3.A)." (That's for Cathay Pacific Airways, but the others are essentially
the same.)

The "Provisions for Dangerous Goods Carried by Passengers or Crew", Table
2.3.A is at [http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr/Documents/DG-
Passenge...](http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr/Documents/DG-Passenger-
Crew-Provisions-23A-2013-EN.pdf) . It says:

You may have "Lithium ion battery powered equipment containing batteries over
100 Wh but not exceeding 160 Wh." as carry-on, in checked-baggage, and on ones
person.

You may have "Spare lithium ion batteries with a Watt-hour rating exceeding
100 Wh but not exceeding 160 Wh for consumer electronic devices. Maximum of
two spare batteries may be carried in carry-on baggage only. These batteries
must be individually protected to prevent short circuits." Note that these are
not permitted in checked baggage.

None of this has changed. The only things that have changed are how to handle
lithium metal batteries _as_ _cargo_.

And to the person who posted this, and the people who thought it might be
affecting them - the article was oozing with Betteridge's law. There's no
information, but the writer ran with it anyway, inserting a "?" for CYA power.
"The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the
story is probably bollocks, and don’t actually have the sources and facts to
back it up, but still want to run it."

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msy
Linkbait. There is nothing specific in this to 787 flights and no airline is
actually banning passengers taking laptops etc or even saying they are
thinking about it, it's just some airlines looking at not carrying batteries
as cargo.

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dasil003
Ain't gonna happen. There's no way people will be prevented from traveling
with laptops or mobile phones. Do we stop driving with the much higher stakes
of tens of thousands of people dying yearly in car accidents? Of course not.
Any airline that tried to impose such regulations would face near-immediate
bankruptcy.

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adamjernst
This seems like an intentional misunderstanding for press attention. How do
you get from "shipments of lithium-ion and lithium batteries on cargo
aircraft" to banning laptops?

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kryptiskt
The headline is wrong, it would not be limited to Boeing 787 (which is
sensible, as LiIon batteries aren't combustible just on that plane). Anyway,
it seems nobody quoted in the article really thinks a ban on the batteries
would cover devices which uses the batteries. So I would think the inference
the article is drumming up isn't looking very likely at all.

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ericd
I have a 15 hour flight on Cathay Pacific coming up, this is a deal breaker,
if true... there's no way I'm going to be away from my laptop for two weeks on
account of a carrier's irrational fears.

~~~
nolok
Article states it's only on cargo planes, not yours. It's also full of
unconfirmed statements and I would give no real value to it until someone who
can do a proper fact checking talks about it.

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SamuelKillin
It won't happen here in Australia. QANTAS, our national airline, has just
deployed iPads to every seat as the new iteration of their in flight
entertainment

