petersaville.net

In the UK laptop computers were restricted from being taken aboard planes recently after a foiled terrorist plot. It was believed that latpops could be used to hide a liquid or gel based explosive inside them. However, just as we were starting to think we we could take out laptops on board again the news has broken that Virgin Atlantic has confirmed that it is temporarily restricting the use of Dell and Apple laptops on its flights as the well documented string of battery problems threatens cause issues on flights. In a move prompted by recent issues relating to overheating laptop batteries manufactured by Sony, the airline said cabin staff will ask all users of Dell and Apple portables to remove batteries from the products when onboard.
However, this could be extended to uses of the popular IBM / Lenovo Thinkpad laptops as a flaming ThinkPad notebook had to be extinguished at Los Angeles International airport. Also this week it appears Toshiba will be recalling laptops and said it would replace about 340,000 cells used in Satellite, Satellite Pro, Equium and Tecra laptops. Toshiba insisted that unlike the case with those earlier recalls there was no danger of batteries overheating.
Also while we are on air travel make sure you don’t loose your laptop, ipod or blackberry as a US flight was diverted after an unclaimed BlackBerry was deemed to be a risk. Also in Canada, an iPod that had fallen into a plane’s lavatory was seen as a “suspicious package”.