An Expanded Electronics Ban Is Off The Table For Now (Apparently For Real This Time?)

What about the current ban for ME flights? Will that be lifted?

I think a good decision. Obviously security agencies need to review their practices from time to time. But based on probabilities experienced, it looks like the risk of lithium batteries catching fire in the hold is bigger than explosives being carried inside a laptop. The number of devices catching fire is far higher than the one case (Somalia) in which a laptop was used as an explosive device.

That's excellent news - let's hope it's off the table for the indefinite future. Slightly off topic, a friend owns a business that trains dogs for explosive detection. To say that this is a growth industry would be an understatement. He can't keep up with the demand.

Is it safe to assume that US cannot convince EU that the threat is real and therefore a ban is required? Or maybe to assume that EU agrees that the threat is real but electronic ban is not a solution?

Or maybe just a move to discomfort passenger of ME3?

If DHS is so concerned just increase scrutiny on laptops. Maybe even waive/lower it for GE members.

So lithium ion batteries can go in the hold coming from the Middle East, but not from Europe. Filtering out the flamboyance, all that is left when looking at this administration is simple incompetence.

Just read online at aero.de that according to sources in DHS the laptop ban is not off the table and still could be enforced. The talks with the EU officials apparently never explicitly stated that the ban would be off.. what a mess.

USAToday is reporting the exact opposite saying DHS is denying the Politico report.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/05/30/laptop-ban-department-of-homeland-security-european-commission/102315388/

I'm far more likely to die in a car accident on the way to the airport than to die in a plane brought down by a bomb in a laptop.

And I'd like to believe that increased screening for explosives would be far easier to institute than a complete ban on laptops.

"While this is subject to change and ultimately refers to unnamed sources, this does seem credible, as it’s at least based on the conversation that John Kelly allegedly had with his counterparts (which is more credible than past references, which have referred to unnamed sources citing unnamed decision makers)."

Sounds just like "Weapons of Mass Destruction" from GW. Don't be such a sheep: history bears out that this is almost certainly complete bull. It's the Donald's flavor of yet another scare tactic.

If this bomb is so powerful that it can take an airplane out of the sky, why is it safer in the cargo hold?

in doing some research, almost 20 years ago a flight was brought down but a cassette tape player in someone's checked luggage:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/26/world/pan-am-flight-103-fast-facts/

We've always been at war with Eastasia

Oh thank goodness for this news! Now we can Instagram in peace, haha.

This wretched policy dropped in Dubai and Abu Dhabi while I was visiting a few months back. After all, that's a ton of money you're expecting tourists to leave behind. We figured out a way to get our stuff home (some of us were already taking chartered flights in the area, others shipped home), but it was really a pain.

A truly great lesson for fellow travelers. Always be ready and prepared for anything to change.

This Trump and his so called administration is such a disarray , incompetent and miss-managed that if it was any private/public company CEO, he will get fired immediately or worse yet put into jail for Russia collusion by him and his family!

@John
Because the electronics ban was never really meant for safety. It was a big middle finger to EK, EY and QR. Always has been. This talk of an EU ban was all just cover.

@ John

Eastasia (sic) is not the Middle East

If you were being sarcastic, however, then well done!