Politics

US plans to ban this common travel item from flights

May 29, 2017

Everyone knows these items are banned, but laptops are soon to be on the no-fly list.

Just when you thought airport security couldn’t get any stricter, brace yourselves because it’s about to get a whole lot tougher to carry anything onboard – especially if you’re travelling to America.

While we all know you can’t carry scissors, aerosol cans or any kind of liquid above 100ml, believe it or not, laptops could be put on the no-fly list.

US Secretary of Homeland Security, John Kelly says the United States is seriously considering banning laptops from aircraft cabins of all flights into and out of the country.

He told Fox News that the US planned to “raise the bar” on airline security.

“That’s the thing that they are obsessed with, the terrorists, the idea of knocking down an airplane in flight, particularly if it’s a US carrier, particularly if it’s full of US people,” he said.

Last week, Kelly told Fox News that if people knew the extent of the security threat to the US, some people would “never leave the house”.

In March this year, Trump’s administration imposed restrictions on large electronic devices in aircraft cabins on flights from 10 airports, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey.

Kelly said the move would be part of a broader effort to tighten airline security to combat what he called “a real sophisticated threat”.

While no decision has been made regarding the timing of the ban, Kelly said Homeland Security were still following the intelligence.

“We are in the process of defining this, but we’re going to raise the bar generally speaking for aviation much higher than it is now,” he said.

Tighter screening of carry-on items is on the table in a bid to allow Transport Security Administration (TSA) agents to discern problematic items in tightly stuffed bags.

Kelly said the reason was that people were stuffing online baggage to the point where it was difficult to see through the clutter in order to avoid paying fees for checked bags.

“The more stuff is in there, the less the TSA professionals that are looking at what’s in those bags through the monitors can tell what’s in them,” he said.

The TSA has begun testing certain new procedures at a limited number of airports, requiring people to remove additional items from carry-on bags for separate screenings.

Asked whether the government would expand such measures nationwide, Kelly said: “We might, and likely will.”