Virgin Atlantic bans Dell, Apple batteries on frights Make them safe
By Our Travel Correspondent: Sunday 17 September 2006, 16:43
FAUX TRENDY AIRLINE Virgin Atlantic said people travelling on its international frights with Apple or Dell machines can only travel with their notebooks if the batteries are removed and made safe.
If you're travelling in trendy Virgin cabins, you might be able to use the notebooks if the staff can find an adaptor to plug into your machine. Often such facilities are available in so-called "upper class" where people have beds, unlike "lower class" and "middle class".
Virgin said in a statement here that it is talking to Dell and Apple and "as soon as the safety issue is resolved these restrictions will be lifted".
But as the world+dog knows, the problem is not really with Dell nor Apple notebooks, but with lithium ion batteries in general. Li-ION batteries are used in all manner of devices, as the world+dog also knows.
The CAA told the INQ some weeks ago that when batteries are carried in cargo they have to be protected, but there were exemptions for cabins. Qantas led the way a few weeks later by saying no to Apples nor Dell batteries, irrespective of the recall numbers.
We've often thought transatlantic flights should just strap all passengers into bunk beds, with a small LCD monitor above their heads and a dose of "anaesthetic" so they can while the useless hours away. There would have to be ladders, of course, so people can take a leak. Asking the airlines's stewardesses and stewards to fit catheters would probably be a task too far, so a button could be available when leak time beckoned
It looks like laptop batteries are fast gaining on cellphones as the technology most likely to kill you, or at least give you a nasty, potentially embarrassing burn. Hot on the heels of Dell investigating its own case of spontaneous combustion, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is now getting in on the act, looking into the possibility that laptop batteries may have started a fire on a UPS cargo plane that was forced to make an emergency landing last February. The plane's three crew members managed to escape with only minor injuries, but the fire ultimately destroyed the plane and most of the cargo on board. While the NTSB investigation hasn't pinned the blame on the batteries just yet, the FAA's has Harry Webster has testified that lithium-ion batteries can vent flammable liquid and "pose a risk to the cargo compartment." We've already seen warnings not to use your laptop on your lap -- think warnings not to travel with them are far behind?