Posted on 12/30/2007 4:14:11 PM PST by Cagey
TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) - Flying well-equipped for business and pleasure gets a bit more complicated on Jan. 1, as the U.S. Transportation Department bars travelers from packing loose lithium batteries in checked luggage.
The move is designed to help minimize the risk that such batteries could overheat and catch fire on board, the agency's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said in a statement on Friday.
The new rules say travelers can bring a laptop computer, digital camera, cellphone and other equipment on board or in checked luggage if their lithium batteries are installed in the items.
And flyers can bring spare batteries in carry-on luggage if they're stored in plastic bags or if they're in the original retail packaging. But travelers can bring only as many as two such spare batteries, and each must be packed separately.
(Excerpt) Read more at custom.marketwatch.com ...
Now that’s being proactive: A solution waiting for a problem.
At least the plastic bag part is common-sensical. Don’t want the terminals to short against your keychain or something— boom!
Don’t embarress those Arabs with the bulky vests. That’s our TSA (Employment for High School Dropouts)
They embarrassed the snot out of my 80 year old grandma. Sure enough the stories about these clowns are true.
As far a safely storing batteries, it is a good idea.
Anyone who says Bin Laden has had no effect on the lives of Americans has not been in an airport or traveled by commercial jet since 911. The desire of the government to appear to do “something†is a sop to those with a soapbox who say we can never be safe enough. The chance of you being on the wrong plane at the wrong time, or on the wrong floor of a very large building at the wrong time unmeasurably-unimportantly small. This is make work by security companies and contractors on the federal dole. Enough! Put air-marshals on all the planes and be done with it (with money saved by getting rid of the cosmetic/feel-good TSA). Lacking enough of those, start deputizing. Instead of training passengers how to buckle a seat belt, tell them they have a national-security duty as passengers to take down anyone or any group that attempts to commandeer the plane they are riding in, by any and all means available. Regular playing of Flight 92 highlights during the safety briefing would be a start.
Could. But has it EVER happened? Won’t be long before it will be strip naked and take no luggage.
ping
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