When your notebook’s battery is in questionable shape, the FAA tends to take notice.
U.S. airline safety regulators banned select MacBook Pro notebooks on flights after Apple recently stated that some units posed a fire risk.
In a statement, the FAA said that it was “aware of the recalled batteries that are used in some Apple MacBook Pro laptops” and stated that it alerted major U.S. airlines about the recall.
The watchdog group also reminded airlines to follow 2016 safety instructions for goods with recalled batteries. As such affected Apple notebooks should not be included on flights as cargo or carry-on baggage.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency issued a warning about these MacBook Pro models earlier this month, telling airlines in the region to follow 2017 rules that require devices with recalled lithium-ion batteries to be switched off and not used during flights.
The Apple notebooks in question are some 15-inch MacBook Pros sold between September 2015 and February 2017. Apple issued the recall in June, saying it had “determined that, in a limited number of older generation 15-inch MacBook Pro units, the battery may overheat and pose a fire safety risk.”
The ban has also been enacted by cargo operators Total Cargo Expertise — TUI Group Airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines, Air Italy, and Air Transat.
Per the memo:
“Please note that the 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro laptop, sold between mid-2015 to February-2017 is prohibited on board any of our mandate carriers,” a TCE operations coordinator wrote to employees.
A spokesperson for TUI Group Airlines said airport staff and flight attendants will start making announcements about these MacBook Pros at the gate and before takeoff. Notebooks that have replaced batteries won’t be impacted, the spokesperson said. The company also posted a notice on its website banning the recalled computers on board, in both cargo and passenger areas of its planes. It’s unclear what efforts will, if any, be made at U.S. airports.
Apple offered the following statement in June:
“Customer safety is always Apple’s top priority, and we have voluntarily decided to replace affected batteries, free of charge. Once new batteries are installed in the laptops, customers are free to fly with the computers.”
According to a Canadian notice from June, roughly 432,000 MacBook Pros sold in the U.S. were included in the recall. Approximately 26,000 units sold in Canada were impacted. The number of MacBook Pros sold in Europe has yet to be disclosed.
In a July 10 tweet following an incident involving a MacBook, the FAA said “recalled #batteries do not fly.”
While there have been repeated incidents of phones, notebooks, and other devices overheating and catching fire in the passenger compartments of planes, these haven’t caused a fire to spread. The flames can be extinguished with water and flight attendants have been trained as to how to address it. There have been at least three accidents, two of them fatal, on cargo airlines since 2006 in which lithium batteries were suspected of helping spread fires. Stricter rules on shipping them have been introduced since then.
U.S. aviation regulations prohibit carrying recalled batteries on flights unless they’ve been replaced or stored in special packaging that inhibits fires, according to FAA guidelines on hazardous materials.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via Bloomberg