US flight authorities tighten rules on gadget battery storage

Travelling to the US? Make sure you've packed your gadgets' rechargeable batteries properly, as new rules governing what power cells you can take with you are now in force. The bottom line is don't keep batteries in luggage you plan to check in, unless they're installed within a device. Spare batteries must be packed in your …

[Anonymous Coward]

We need someone to invent...

...the matter transporter so we can dispense with all this airport nonsense.

[Edwin]

Good grief...

This reminds me of one of those Dilbert cartoons (or BOHF stories) where the (PH)B has been reading technical material...

How *DO* they come up with this nonsense?

[Colin Millar]

Can someone remind me?

How many air transport incidents were caused in 2007 by batteries. It is such a big number that I think I must have got it mixed up with lost UK Government records.

[TeeCee]

New rule.

All air travel security experts should be placed in airtight plastic bags secured around the neck with industrial cable ties.

That'll fix *all* the problems.

[Will]

I believe I can sum up most peoples opinion on this...

....'you fcking what'?!

What docile bunch of thick bastards come up with this crap?

It takes long enough to get through airport checks when simple things like 'shoes' aren't allowed to go unchecked (did you read about the shoe bomber plot, or even seen a photo of that idiot?), how they hell are they going to cope when they have to get a multimeter out to measure how much oomph is in each device?

I'm all for safer skies and don't want to fall foul of some terror plot, or dodgy Sony battery but seriously, we need to weigh up the likelihood of these things actually being an issue.

[Anonymous Coward]

Eee PC

You mentioned the Eee PC, so where's the picture?

Come on buck up!

[Peter H. Coffin]

Interesting choice...

Apparently, they're more concerned about being able to reach and put out a spontaneously-igniting battery than they are about someone using a fistful of batteries for some martial purpose. I'd kind of thought it would be the other way around. I'm sure I'm not the only one that knows how to turn a set of headphones and a battery into a dandy firestarter.

[Anonymous Coward]

Excellent

I know have an excuse to carry a heavy battery with me in order to club the cabin crew and hijack the plane to somewhere with less travel restrictions imposed on EU citizens....

Cuba anyone?

[kain preacher]

well

If they had not had these exploding batteries this would of never happened

[Phil Miesle]

did anybody do the math?

A Li-metal battery with over 2g of Li is "forbidden", but then they talk about "8 grams equivalent". Presumably "g-equiv" is the "100 Wh = 8 g-equiv" ratio so the "aggregate value" of 25 g-equiv is the 300 Wh.

It would seem that so long as I have them in carry-on I can carry an "unlimited" amount of spares that are below the 8 g-equiv rating, but can only carry two that are over 8 g-equiv (and the sum of those two must be under 25 g-equiv).

Could someone at El Reg get the TSA to comment on this or perhaps clarify what in the heck they're on about?

[Anonymous Coward]

All part of the service?

I read down to:

>According to the DoT, 25g is approximately 300 Watt-hours

>while 8g is roughly 100Wh."

Looked at EEE PC on desk, wondering how much lithium it contains, then carried on reading...

>An 5200mAh Eee PC battery - as we have one handy -

>delivers 7.4V and so yields 38.48Wh - just multiply the voltage

>and current values - and that's well within the 300Wh limit

>imposed by the DoT.

Thanks Register

Thegister

[Daniel B.]

The Flaming Dutchman's laptop

Wouldn't this be because of, you know, all those exploding MacBooks and Dell laptops last year? Though in that case, I'd be weary of a Mac laptop anyway as they overheat far too much because of the fan not being turned on as much as it should. (Remember, this is the same Steve Jobs that sold the Mac Plus without *any* kind of fans.) Overheated laptops by themselves up the risk of spontaneous battery combustion.

I chose the flaming icon 'coz the laptop's on flame, and the last one using it was the BOFH. Oops!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ranting Old Git - who doesn't need to get on the no-fly list....

This is stupidity almost beyond belief but I believe the Aussies have (had?) a blanket ban on NiCad batteries flying. It is however to be expected of the ignorant, pompous, blithering, bullying, obstructive, pen pushing git-head bureaucrats that are clogging the flow of passengers through USofA's airports - anybody shuffled through through Miami? - my record is 6.5 hours queuing between flights. The Department of Homeland Security and the Airport Security folks are another bunch of delinquent jobsworth bureaucrats hell bent on dreaming up obstructive and intrusive ways of demonstrating their power to passing peons. Ahhh... that feels better .... wouldn't do that in a Yank airport - I'd get tasered or worse - a pal of mine last year had a gun pulled on him by security for smoking in a designated smoking zone ( stood under the smoking sign! ) and daring to argue the toss!

[Morely Dotes]

So...

I have to put my electric car in hand luggage, and can't check it at the ticket counter? Oh, wait, those are lead-acid batteries, no lithium at all.

Someone at TSA needs more lithium in their diet, obviously.

[Anonymous Coward]

so what's the big deal?

this is why industrial tool batteries come with caps and have recessed contacts so they can't short and start fires in your toolbox. What sort of anarchist morons are against this sort of regulation? Is it worth your laziness to have a dozen AA format batteries with exposed contacts rolling around so it can short out and start a fire? Or are you all a bunch of wannabe lottery winners hoping you can cause a situation and win a big lawsuit?

The ruling is simple-you wanna carry a ridiculous number of batteries, keep them in something. Hell, the NiMH's I buy come with a neat little case to keep em from rattling around when I don't have them in the flashgun. The camera's batteries themselves are proprietary cartridges that are nicely covered.

But hey, don't let that get in the way of creating a common-sense and regulation-free world. Then you can bitch about that too.

[Barry]

Presumably....

... if I'm caught with a battery, that is only just under the limits, I'll be allowed on the plane just as long as I <here it comes> don't start anything?

[Anonymous Coward]

Pants!

Never mind the shoe bomber, I want to see how the intelligence and security services deal with someone hiding a bomb in thier pants.

Both "Intelligence" and "Security" services are - clearly - oxymorons. Or perhaps just morons...

[JonD]

Another way to boost duty free sales?

I wouldnt worry about this. The security monkeys will take all your batteries at the scanners and strip search section and then you can buy as many replacements as you like once you get into duty free at the otherside.

[Dave Bell]

And just who are going to enforce these rules?

More rules to be enforced by minimum-wages jobsworths.

The starting point isn't daft, but, apart from defective battery packs which have caught fire while being used, how many incidents have there been?