Hacker News Reader

Comment by justinsaccount | Hacker News Reader

If Note 7s are so dangerous, how is it that people are asked to turn them off, rather than prevented from taking them on a flight in the first place?

The only thing worse than security theater is voluntary security theater.

(and yes, I'm aware that the device in question here was not actually a note 7).

View on HN

People are told repeatedly that Note 7s are not allowed on flights at all now. You get announcements in line for security, at the gate, and on board before leaving.

Interesting... here in the EU they are just told to turn them off, not charge them onboard and not keep them in the overhead locker (although details vary by flight).

-Not quite.

Last week the flight crew on my Scandinavian and Lufthansa (Both Star Alliance) flights repeatedly informed us prior to departure that anyone caught with a Note 7 on them would be hung, drawn and quartered to the full extent of law and then some more, just to be sure.

I think they went from just requiring them to be switched off to banning them altogether sometime in September. Ban was definitely in effect in October.

I also think that the flight attendant claimed this was due to a recommendation from the EASA (European Air Safety Agency), though I didn't pay all that much attention as I was reading E-mail on my positively ancient S4 Active at the time. :)

I flew from UK to Germany and back on Ryanair last month. No announcements about the Note 7.

Because EU doesn't have any initiative to push Apple's agenda.

I just flew UK to Spain this week an no one even mentioned Galaxy. Note 7. Nothing but the standard "phoned must be off or in airplane mode"

I fly UK-Spain (and back) twice a month. In October and November, there were specific alerts about Galaxy Note 7s (you had to give them to the crew that would put them somewhere IIRC, I didn't pay much attention). In my last flight (December) it was only generic for all phones.

Because that's what the sane approach is. The odds of Galaxy Note 7 is going in flames are very very small, this happening during these few hours when on plane, makes it even more smaller by few orders of magnitude. That's why in my parent post I suspected hidden agenda by direct competitors, not that there's real hazard. We accept bigger risks every day and don't make big deal of them.

And yet it already actually happened[1], within a few days of the device's re-launch after the first recall.

[1] http://gizmodo.com/galaxy-note-7-explodes-during-boarding-of...

I doubt there's an agenda to push Apple products but the sane approach is just to insist all phones are switched off as you say.

If we're completely honest, with little effort any LiPo can be turned into a threat. Puncture a sufficiently large LiPo, throw it in the toilet bin and go back to your seat. With a phone, laptop and camera - all with spare batteries it's conceivable that you could cause some serious damage.

It's impossible to remove all risks on an aircraft - they will always be there. It would be better to have better handling - i.e. a large fire proof bag and a bucket of sand. Inevitably this will end up happening regardless of what checks they put in place. Fire extinguishers simply don't cut it with LiPos and I doubt their staff even know that.

Why don't they check for this particular phone in TSA security? The process is already ridiculous with shoe removal and toiletries in ziploc. Why not check the model number on my phone?

They do check for it. I've seen people pulled aside with their phone getting inspected, presumably when TSA sees a something resembling a 7 in the scanner. (They probably know what to look for)

Are you sure that's what they were checking? They've randomly pulled people aside and swabbed electronics for years so it may just be that.

They explicity asked, and then manually inspected. (I was in the line for getting electronics swabbed so I could see)

That's an FAA (US gov't) ban, though, right? I imagine it wouldn't apply to planes that aren't traveling in/to/from the US.

I just checked into my Flight, UA2, from Singapore to San Francisco (SIN->SFO). Traditionally when checking in to this flight, I'm asked questions about sharp objects, has anyone given me anything to carry, did i pack my bag, has my bag been under my control. This time, the security person had one, and only one question (That's actually what he said, "I only have one question for you" - They held up a sheet of paper with "Galaxy Note 7" on it, and asked me if I had one in my possession, either checked or carry on luggage. That's it, that's all they cared about.

They really don't want those phones on planes in any form.

They are banned on all US flights, so they're undoubtedly banned in many other countries as well. You are not simply asked to turn them off.

I've been on 6 EU flights since the US ban went into place. 2 were BA, 1 was Norwegian, 2 were flybe and 1 was wizzair. However, none of them said we could not have them on board.. but we were told that they must be off, and not charging during the flight. One said that if we dropped the phone and couldn't retrieve it, we were to notify flightcrew as a matter of urgency.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com