“Virgin Atlantic has lifted its total ban on the in-flight use of batteries for any Apple or Dell laptop,” Scott Mckenzie reports for ZDNet Australia.
“The airline recently banned the onboard use of Apple and Dell laptops if the batteries were not removed, following last month’s recall of more than five million batteries from the computer makers. The decision followed similar restrictions by Qantas and Korean Air,” Mckenzie reports.
“In the latest update on its site Virgin Atlantic has said that passengers ‘wishing to use an Apple or Dell laptop on board can only do so once the laptop serial number has been checked by a member of the cabin crew,'” Mckenzie reports. “Only a small portion of the computer makers’ laptops are affected by the faulty batteries — made by Sony — which both Dell and Apple have claimed could overheat and catch fire.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Guess they finally got sick of being called idiots by paying customers who wish to use their Apple MacBooks or Dell CrapBooks that have absolutely nothing to do with the Sony battery recall.
Related articles:
Virgin Atlantic bans use of all Apple, Dell notebook batteries in-flight – September 18, 2006
Korean Air bans use of Apple PowerBooks, iBooks, and all Dell laptop models during flight – September 05, 2006
Dell Japan President blames Sony for recall of fire hazardous batteries – August 29, 2006
Sony-made battery fire in discontinued Apple notebook computer reported in Japan – August 29, 2006
Apple to recall 1.8 million Sony-made iBook G4, PowerBook G4 batteries – August 24, 2006
Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and others working on battery standard – August 23, 2006
Qantas first airline to restrict in-flight Dell laptop use due to fire-prone batteries – August 23, 2006
Dell and Sony knew about battery problems nearly a year ago, waited for catastrophic failures – August 21, 2006
Dell issues largest safety recall in history: 4.1 million laptop batteries due to fire threat – August 14, 2006
Another Dell laptop goes up in flames – July 28, 2006
Dell laptop fires may have been downplayed – July 22, 2006
NY Times: Dell’s exploding laptop and other image problems – July 10, 2006
Dell laptop explodes into flames at Japanese conference – June 21, 2006
Yeah, it’s called ‘knowin’ your shit’ and not guilty by association!
Most big business just bundles everyone in the same bag of crap. Any good company worth its salt will research and find out the exact problem and react accordingly.
Well done.
Leo
That’s profiling….and profiling is wrong.
“…passengers ‘wishing to use an Apple or Dell laptop on board can only do so once the laptop serial number has been checked by a member of the cabin crew…”
Are they really that stupid? The problem was/is the battery and not the computer itself. Thank gawd I mainly fly Emirates and Lufthansa.
Glad they responded positively to my email to them.
Like an employee is supposed to know the difference. Sheesh. They had to distribute a serial number list to all their employees and all planes… it would’ve been an insurance liability NOT to…
The airlines are already on a shoestring budget and until they had systems in place to check ALL computers, including Dells, they’re not going to take a liability on board.
Mac Zealotry != thinking