Air travel Urban Legend...
Philip A. DesAutels (philipd@w3.org)
Tue, 16 Dec 1997 08:25:20 -0500
>
> >
> > Laptop Computers on international Airplanes:
> >
> > Recently, two individuals from USPL were travelling to Belgium on
> > Sabena Belgium World Airlines, which is affiliated with Delta
> > Airlines. They were seated in row 6 of the plane where seats
> > contain
> > the tray tables in the armrest section of the seat. They set up
> > their
> > tray tables and proceeded to use their laptop computers. During
> > the
> > flight, both their PCs began experiencing problems, and soon they
> > were
> > unable to use their PCs. Apparently the tray tables were
> > magnetized,
> > so that tray tables will not make noises while stored in the
> > armrests.
> > The magnetized trays corrupted the hard drives of both laptops.
> > On
> > this particular Belgium flight, the aircraft happened to be a
> > "new"
> > Airbus 340, which explains why this has not surfaced until now.
> > The
> > problem seems to be with a specific European aircraft seat
> > manufacturer. US Airways, Northwest and United have no plans to
> > utilize these magnetized trays in their new Airbus aircraft.
> > Boeing
> > and McDonald Douglas also have no plans to use these magnetized
> > trays
> > in their new aircraft, and there have been no reported cases of
> > other
> > types of aircraft experiencing this problem.
> >
> > The purpose of this notice is to simply make travellers aware of
> > the
> > "potential" problem, especially on Airbus aircraft built for
> > European-based airlines. If the tray table appears to be
> > magnetized
> > (use a paperclip to see if it sticks), then I advise people not
> > to use
> > their laptop computer on these trays. Please pass this advisory
> > on to
> > your international travellers.
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > The INTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION - IATA
> > To Represent and To Serve The Airline Industry - information@iata.org
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
-------------------------------------------------------------
Philip A. DesAutels W3C <http://www.w3.org/>
Technology and Society NE43-350
philipd@w3.org 545 Technology Square
617.258.5714 Cambridge, MA 02139