The FAA has banned some MacBook Pros from flights over battery recall
Aug 17, 2019
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Share:
A couple of months ago, Apple announced a recall for a “limited number” of 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro laptops sold between 2015 and 2017. This was due to the fact that “the battery may overheat and pose a fire safety risk”. If you own one, you can enter your serial number into this page to check if yours is affected by the recall.
If you’re not bothered about checking, don’t worry, the FAA is enforcing it for you, should you attempt to fly with it. They have alerted major U.S. airlines about the recall, and they’re banning the affected MacBooks from flights, reminding airlines to follow 2016 safety instructions for goods with recalled batteries, Bloomberg reports.
And this recall is no idle warning. Designer, Steve Gagne detailed the story of his MacBook Pro battery exploding while at home with the screen closed, unplugged, and in sleep mode. It’s quite the harrowing tale if you happen to own one of the affected units.
A warning, earlier in the month, was issued by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, telling airlines to follow the 2017 rules that require devices with recalled lithium-ion batteries to be turned off and not used during flights. Personally, I tend to agree with the FAA’s position over this one.
The laptops included in the ban are only those MacBook Pros that are part of the recent Apple recall. So, if you’re ever planning to fly with it, you’ll want to get it sorted. Even if you’re not planning to fly with it, given Steve’s story, I’d still suggest sending it off to Apple to have the battery replaced. The recall is said to affect around 458,000 MacBook Pros sold in the US & Canada.
Once you have got the battery replaced, you are free to take it on any flight you like.
[via PetaPixel]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Join the Discussion
DIYP Comment Policy
Be nice, be on-topic, no personal information or flames.
7 responses to “The FAA has banned some MacBook Pros from flights over battery recall”
Yes, my batteries got “pregnant” and I turned to my local Apple store. Sure, they would fix it under warranty. But they had to have my computer for 2-3 weeks! Completely unacceptable if you’re a professional user. Why can’t they just order replacement batteries to the local store and swap them while you wait?
I paid a local store to replace the batteries while I waited. It cost me about 200 euros but it saved me from transferring all the software and licenses to my MBA.
Who buys a mac?
Dave Nichols reliable? Check out Louis Rossman channel where he point out all design flaws ans stupidity apple puts in there computers
Alexandre Ayoubi he’s also yet to point out a longer lasting, better built computer.
Jyi Offer yes it called Lenovo Think pad, they are built like tanks
How cool is that!
So you need to carry a genuine Apple certificate stamped and signed at that exact same genius bar that took your MacBook Pro for the recall and show it to the officer during check in. This officer will validate that the MacBook Pro is still sealed with the tamper proof warranty seal(s) the genius bar guy has applied (“… which is nearly impossible to remove…” courtesy of Sir Louis – double-s double-n Rossmann), so no evildoer could possibly have put another set of el-cheapo aftermarket batteries in himself using tools from IFixit. Or perhaps Apple has secretly introduced some hightech lead-ink x-ray signature that allows checking manufacturing date and batch number from outside, without cracking open the case? (Anyone wanting to register a patent for this?)
And for these – hopefully new – genuine-apple-batteries it is 100% assured, that they are not going to blow just like the “limited number” which was in the 2015-2017 MacBook Pro? Yeah, makes total sense to me. I think electronic devices powered with Li-Ion batteries have had it in aviation if the FAA takes things seriously. Resistance is futile.