Laptops are essential for most business travellers, but depending which laptop you own, they may become a nuisance in the skies yet again, as may other popular electronic devices with rechargeable batteries.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has renewed its guidance on bringing electronics with lithium batteries onto planes, this time reiterating a ban on select Apple laptops and all devices with recalled batteries or components. With an estimate 500,000 of these specific laptops in circulation, it could be a tedious time…
Recalled Battery Ban
The FAA is looking to eliminate recalled items from flying the friendly skies and a recalled version of the Macbook Pro is the latest target. If this sounds like deja vu, you’d be absolutely correct. In 2016 the Samsung Galaxy S7 Note was banned from the skies after catching fire spontaneously. The FAA has since clarified to The Verge that this renewed call is not specific to the Macbook Pro itself, but to all batteries or products which have been recalled. They’re not allowed to fly.
The good news: you’re not singled out for having a Macbook Pro.
The bad news : 1000’s of electronics products have recalls.
This new mandate is based upon a fire hazard specific to roughly 468,000 Macbook Pro’s which were recalled by Apple earlier this summer. It’s been reported that many of these popular devices have not yet been sent in for their one to two week battery replacement process, which means it’s highly likely that many of these flammable laptops have been, or are on planes. Obviously, that’s worth a reminder to passengers to plug this fix.
The laptops in question were made between September 2015 and February 2017.
Passenger Electronics Responsibility
The FAA alert comes amid growing concern of lithium ion batteries catching fire on board, which poses one of the greatest modern day risks to aviation safety. A flight was recently forced to divert after an electronic device caught fire in between seats, due to a faulty charging bank. With this new concern, it’s every passengers duty to ensure that any devices with rechargeable batteries they plan to carry on board have not been subject to a recall – or if they have – that they’ve made the required fixes.
If you happen to have one of these Macbook’s, or think you may, Apple has a dedicated website set up to help identify whether your specific model was affected. If it was, better to get it fixed sooner than later, because you can expect airlines to pay closer attention to what’s being brought on board than ever.
HT: Bloomberg
