Egypt complains to ICAO on in-flight laptop ban as US looks to extend it to other countries

Egypt complains to world aviation body about in-flight laptop ban — at the same time the US is looking to take the ban global. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) met yesterday behind closed doors in Montreal after Egypt and the United Arab Emirates “complained their airlines had been unduly penalized by the decision to relegate laptops to the cargo hold on some flights due to security concerns.” Egypt won’t be getting a very sympathetic ear. An ICAO working paper seen by Reuters “threw its weight behind concerns that laptops are a greater security risk in the passenger cabin than in the hold, because of the threat that hidden explosives could be detonated manually.” In parallel, the body “has also asked its experts to weigh this against the safety risk of storing a larger number of flammable batteries unattended in a commercial aircraft's baggage compartment.” Bloomberg, meanwhile, reports that “anti-terrorist officials in the U.S. are considering expanding the restrictions on carrying electronic devices in airline cabins beyond the handful of Middle East airports currently covered.”