Virgin Atlantic Bans Dell, Apple Laptops 205
TechFreep writes, "Amid a slew of incidents involving exploding Sony batteries, Virgin Atlantic announced that it won't allow passengers to use batteries in any Apple or Dell laptops on flights. The announcement, posted on Virgin's website, said that passengers may carry on the laptop itself, but batteries must be properly wrapped and stowed away in carry-on for the duration of the flight. However, the airline provided no details as to what proper wrapping entails. For those who wish to use a laptop while on the plane, Virgin plans to provide power adapters on flights where outlets are available." Will Virgin allow on board exploding Sony batteries in IBM ThinkPads?
Re:Seat power outlets (Score:2, Informative)
Don't count on that. The last one I used (on a new Air Canada Embraer 190) had only enough power available to charge the battery *or* run the laptop (a Dell D610).
Until the battery was fully charged, I had to leave the laptop turned off or else the breaker would trip every 2 minutes.
Re:Why not ban *all* batteries? (Score:2, Informative)
* An SLA doesn't explode if punctured, it just leaks corrosive paste everywhere (still nasty).
* An SLA doesn't explode if overcharged, it generally just busts open and leaks the corrosive paste.
* An SLA doesn't explode if undercharged, it just sulfates the plates causing the battery to not work well.
* An SLA doesn't explode if shorted out, the pressure release valve pops and hot corrosive paste is ejected.
In theory if the pressure release system had been tampered with and the battery was shorted out, the paste/aqueous solution could boil and build up critical pressure cuasing it to explode, however I have never seen this happen, and it still wouldn't burst into flames, just throw highly corrosive steam everywhere...
Re:In other news... (Score:3, Informative)
It's rarely "hey, book your own flights, just try not to use airline x, y, and z".
Besides, most corporate travel policies aren't based on "hey, these guys won't let you use your laptop", it's generally "cheapest possible. you can keep the flier miles, and fly your preferred airline to get those points, as long as the airline choice doesn't result in increased expenditure".
One Jet's already burned. (Score:4, Informative)
In these cases, the batteries were not on, nor even in computers. The things are dangerous.