Washington D.C. [USA], May 29 : The U.S. administration is considering a blanket ban on laptops in passenger cabins of all international flights to and from the United States.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly told Fox News on Sunday that he was considering the laptop ban as "there's a real threat".
"That's really the thing that they are obsessed with, the terrorists, the idea of knocking down an airplane in flight, particularly if it's a U.S.
carrier, particularly if it's full of mostly U.S. folks, people," he said. If implemented, the ban would expand from some 10 international airports in the Middle East and Africa to airports worldwide.
The DHS announced, earlier in March, ban on all gadgets larger than a smartphone, which include laptops and iPads, on direct flights between the United States and 10 international airports in the Middle East and Africa.
Kelly, however, did not provide a timeline for when a decision could happen. "There's new technologies down the road, not too far down the road that we will rely on. But it is a real sophisticated threat and I will reserve that decision until we see where it's going," he said.
The current ban applies to non-stop US-bound flights from international airports in Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Cairo; Istanbul; Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Casablanca, Morocco; Doha, Qatar; and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
About 50 flights a day, all on foreign airlines, are affected. Authorities at the time said that the initial ban was put considering a previously undisclosed terrorists' plot, involving explosives hidden in an electronic device.
Following the U.S., Britain also imposed a similar ban, applying to inbound flights from six countries that are Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Turkey.
Source: ANI
