Possible Laptop Ban on ex-UK Flights

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Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 32 total)

  • Tom Otley
    Keymaster


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster


    MarcusGB
    Participant

    Today i went through with Garuda on a domestic flight and into Jakarta.
    Signs at the Check in Desk stated “No laptops to be put into Checked in Baggage”! X

    At Many Asian Airports, you go through a Security check to get Enter the terminal, or at least into the Check in desk area, travellers only.
    Then another security check after CI, to enter Airside!

    Those old slow Lounge computers will have queues by them!
    This will be confusing with mixed Policies Worldwide, with the Battery issue focused on more in Asia, or any Phones, other technology in Checked in bags.

    Connecting in from Europe, seems you will be breaching the rules one area or another. There has to be an honest and open rational behind this, as either place to me could potentially be a risk.
    Perhaps we can return to the days of no technology on Aircraft, and smoking from rows 21 back. Now that Was a risk!!!


    Charles-P
    Participant

    Perhaps we can return to the days of no technology on Aircraft, and smoking from rows 21 back. Now that Was a risk!!!

    I say we go further, let’s insist on a dress code for a start. Men to wear ties and jackets, women in dresses with high heels. Smoking fine after dinner but not before. Stewardesses to be young, attractive, slim women who pander to overweight middle aged businessmen (like me!). Turn up 20 minutes before departure with none of those tiresome security checks, people to be assessed by looks alone, if someone looks like a “good chap” then he’s ok. Swarthy foreign types of course to be treated with suspicion and anybody not able to speak English to be turned away and instructed to seek alternative arrangements.


    thecartoonman
    Participant

    @Charles-P

    This did make me chuckle.

    It reminded me of those black and white films from the late 1950’s where ‘swarthy foreign types’ always seemed to be wearing a fez, smoking a Camel and walking around in a ‘black mood’, while the Jolly Brit resembled Terry Thomas and everybody ‘liked the cut of his jib’.

    Priceless.


    K1ngston
    Participant

    I totally agree with you Martyn, this is less about security and more about protectionism for everything US from Trump!

    I just dont know how some of the airlines and indeed airports will be able to cope with such a draconian request here in Asia, and if this ban is indeed announced will it become common throughout the world i.e. to all destinations from all ports??


    Eastbourneguy
    Participant

    Does the ban also apply to crew taking I pads on these flights? Anyone know


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    @Eastbourneguy , the “European to USA ban” does not yet exist. But interestingly, its not just cabin crew and their ipads, it’s flight deck crew with their portable computer equipment that will be interesting to see what happens…. if it happens…


    openfly
    Participant

    Glad to see that BALPA pilots are voicing their objections to such a dangerous plan. Now we need the cabin crew to refuse to work in such dangerous circumstances. Of course the cabin crew would have massive strength with the backing of the Unite union.
    An aircraft hold full of inaccessible lithium batteries…..only in Trumpton could this be a plan!
    Let’s hope that the pilots and cabin crew, the professionals, can bring our transatlantic cousins to see sense.


    PeterCoultas
    Participant

    Back from Italy today with the standard announcement all mobile equipment should be in safe mode….looked around and nobody did anything on a flight packed with tourists..we landed safely..


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    [quote quote=806969]All one has to do is create a Faraday cage (i.e. shield) around the devices in the hold and there will be no comms.[/quote]

    Correct, and it needn’t be that heavy or bulky. In fact it wouldn’t even need to be built into the fuselage – the luggage crates could have them built in.

    But that is FAR too clever by half.

    Referring to Charles-P’s post above, perhaps the US Government’s energies would be better spent ensuring that vending machines are bolted to a wall?

    But now *I’m* being far too clever by half (hangs head in shame)


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    [quote quote=807126]I just dont know how some of the airlines and indeed airports will be able to cope with such a draconian request here in Asia, and if this ban is indeed announced will it become common throughout the world i.e. to all destinations from all ports??[/quote]

    I imagine the same way they did in the last (pointless) crackdown – with additional security at the gates. For a long while at HKG, US-bound flights went from designated gates at the end of the terminal and an additional security screen was conducted before getting entry to that part of the terminal.

    To digress momentarily (and only slightly), I will confess that the last time I went through one of those the security staff were being particularly obnoxious – so much so that I remonstrated with one of them for her flat-out rudeness. Her reaction was extraordinary – she started raging at me and saying that *I* was being rude (I wasn’t, except insofar as I was making a valid complaint when I should presumably, from her point of view, simply have taken her abuse without comment), then suddenly burst into tears and fled the scene. As you can imagine I was then thinking I was going to be set upon by the other security staff and would probably miss my flight – but they all just rather pointedly ignored it, so I gathered my things and went on my way. I wondered (and worried!) for most of the flight about whether I had done something wrong (and whether I was going to be arrested on arrival!), but I genuinely don’t think I was out of line (and nothing happened). It has, however, made me have a little more sympathy for the stress imposed on individuals who are being asked to undertake tasks – however pointless – with people who will almost certainly resent them, day after day after day.

    I have also mentioned before the burning (and carefully hidden) fury I have when going through the gate security check at KLIA (KUL), because every single time (and for every single person) the body scanner beeps. I have a moderately sized watch (with a mostly leather strap), a signet ring, a single metal fastener on my trousers and a few dental fillings – far below whatever the threshold should be. I can only assume that some pillock thought the scanners would be more effective if the sensitivity is set to maximum. And of course it means that not just I, but every other single passenger, gets a pat-down. Why not just save the money, electricity and time and scrap the bloody scanners? Spend the money on more staff in order to do the pat-downs more quickly, please!

    But to come back to the point… At the end of it all, what is this ban supposed to achieve? Explosives in carry-on electronics? Put hand luggage through a bomb detector. It would almost certainly be more effective at achieving *something* than those stupid bloody Malaysian body scanners. It can’t, surely, be anything to do with electronic communications or signals otherwise they would ban mobile phones as well. So that bring us back to hidden explosives. Bombs, I rather suspect (although I am no expert), are just as effective in the hold as in the passenger cabin. So what is the frigging point of requiring someone to put their (supposed) bomb in the hold? What’s more, I seem to recall that for many years (although perhaps this is an urban myth?) it has been possible to create an effective bomb the size of a cigarette packet. I really struggle with the idea that in the intervening years, no-one has been able to conceive of one small enough to fit inside a mobile phone – but they’re still allowed!

    Anyone with enough nous to make a bomb which could be hidden in a laptop can do a Google search and work out how to make a gun or a bomb out of materials bought airside in an airport – in fact, there are some quite entertaining YouTube videos demonstrating this.

    Well, I could go on but this all makes me so angry and I think you get my gist!


    K1ngston
    Participant

    Ian, we are cut from the same cloth, I too would not allow anybody working on by behalf to be rude, and have been arrested or “detained” twice both in the UK I have to say but I won’t put up with someones rudeness for no purpose whoever they are. Treat me with respect and I will mirror that very respect.

    Having been arrested for screaming back at a staff member at T5 and basically causing a scene, her boss apologised to me and stated that “further training” was required on how to deal with people. He made her apologise to me and only at that point did I do the same and things moved on and I was released to continue my travel….

    Maybe too many security lines in far to many countries (where the process is done quickly, efficiently and with an element of friendliness) has clouded my view……


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    I find it frustrating that the same airport, different terminals (Fra T1 and T2), you can have 2 different security companies dealing with passengers in two diametrically opposed manners

    In the case of T5 Heathrow, the same terminal, the same company, yet security in the F Wing and Normal Track are also like ‘chalk and cheese’.

    The El Al security teams may be strong, invasive, perhaps annoying to some, but the one thing they are not, is rude – and in the main, the airlines own team do not have English as their first language..

    Perhaps Pres T’s problems are beginning to mount sufficiently for him to need to secure his position more than worry about the possible European lap top ban….


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    Good summation..

    Common Ground in Trump-Russia Fury: Senseless Laptop Bans
    The U.S. has yet to offer a satisfying answer to a security measure that raises many questions.

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