TSA: “that laptop was broken before you checked it in. Sorry.”
Take my laptop and stick it up your flabby ass. And I don’t give a shit about your (self) service.
Sort of ironic as my understanding is that new planes are being ordered without seatback tv screens as most travelers prefer using their laptop or tablet for watching movies.
Oops! Back to the drawing table.
I’m with you. I also read (can’t find right now) a good article citing logistical reasons why this is not only a stupid business move, but not going to improve security or safety. If laptops in the passenger portion of a plane can blow it up, so can laptops in the cargo section.
The theory here is that you need to be physically next to your bomb to set it off?
Security Theatre! We can use the old barn!
It’s curious that El Al, which has arguably the best airline security on the planet, isn’t suggesting any sort of similar ban; ironically enough, the information to cause this new shoe-worthy level of alarm was supposedly generated by Israeli intelligence.
It is reassuring to know, however, that DHS has determined that a laptop carried on an American air carrier that might explode in a cabin, one that has undergone hands-on scrutinization and examination by the TSA, is less likely to blow a hole in an aircraft at 35,000 feet if it’s in checked baggage, where the level of inspection is demonstrably less thorough, because it’s carried in the cargo hold.
This can only lead to one logical conclusion: DHS has discovered that the magical power of shirts, socks and shorts to protect us is much greater than we ever dreamed!
Wow, they’ll do anything to keep people from in-flight viewing any mainstream media fake news, lol.
For the simpler kinds of bomb, they could just check that the devices boot up, but that would a) require a lot more TSA people at a time when they don’t want to hire folks and b) exposed all those booted-up devices to searches, which the businessfolk would not like.
But I can’t see any way that this doesn’t blow a multibillion dollar hole in lots of people’s revenue streams.
Doesn’t anyone else see this a part of the larger effort to drive a wedge between the U.S. and our European allies? If international flights in/out of the U.S. impose this restriction, it is the business traveler to/from Europe who will be the biggest loser here. This stinks to me of Russian perpetrated fake intel about a threat that is somehow mitigated by keeping laptops out of the passenger area of planes, when, in fact, it’s much more about driving travel and productivity between U.S. and European business interests into the dumper. This is just a variation on Trump doing Putin’s bidding by unnecessarily but extremely effectively undermining NATO based on his ill-informed and ego-driven sense of unfairness. I can easily see Trump and his henchmen as being both too stupid to understand and craven enough to fall for that the fake intel that is designed to further erode our stature and that of our allies… Am I nuts to see things this way?
…or cell phones, which are rapidly becoming the size of tablets.
By now wouldn’t it be prudent to just have all travelers arrive at the airport 3 hours ahead. Go to the locker rooms, strip down to skivvies, put on airline provided scrubs, and check all personal items to go into cargo hold? Then take the sleeping pill, climb into your pod, and sleep the whole way over? No meal service, no entertainment options, no arguing passengers. What’s not to like?
tSA: there was no laptop in your luggage.
thieving airport baggage handlers: there was no laptop in your luggage.
If you’re planning to fly out of Charles deGaulle (CSG, Paris) plan on arriving Four hours ahead of time. That was BEFORE these new rules were even contemplated.
In 2006, my USMC son was patrolling in an under-armored Humber, not far from Fallujah, Iraq. The bad guys blew the Hummer to kingdom come, which threw him out of the gunner’s seat (on the top), knocked him stupid, ended up with having the vehicle commander so badly concussed he was sent home, and set fire to the Hummer. They then swarmed out of a ditch with intent of killing the stunned Marines. Fortunately, the Marines traveled in packs, and blew the bad guys to effing kingdom come.
THE BAD GUYS SET OFF THE IED WITH A CELL PHONE. In 2006. Someone tell these TSA jackasses to shove it where the sun don’t shine, and rotate, till it bleeds.
I bet the airline industry loves the ambivalence you have about rules like this.
Go ahead, asswipe. The U.S. travel industry is gonna love ya for it. And so will the Chamber of Commerce.
It’s the difference between “security theater” and actual security.
Thank you to your son for his service - and to your family members who sent their most precious resource to defend all of us.
General Kelly: I you want my laptop, you will have to pry it off my cold dead hands.