News.com says Virgin Atlantic is lifting the complete ban on in-flight use of Dell and Apple laptops. Previously Virgin was preventing passengers from bringing Apple or Dell laptops on-board with the batteries still in place no matter if it was a model covered in a recall or not. With all the footage and hubbub surrounding the exploding Dell batteries, I was not surprised the ban was levied in the first place. I was more surprised that more airlines didn’t follow suit with similar restrictions.
Virgin Atlantic now allows passengers to bring their Apple and Dell laptops on the plane after a member of the cabin crew has checked the battery serial number. If the battery serial number is not found to be on the recall list it can be used with no restrictions. If however, it is found to be on the banned list I hear you are shipped off to one of those covert prisons maintained by the CIA for trying to smuggle weapons of mass destruction onto a plane. Buy a Dell laptop (hopefully without exploding batteries).