equipment on airplanes now?

[Daniel Buck]

I haven't been up with the latest in world news (dont' own a TV, and hate news!) but someone mentioned to me that due to folks caught with explosives you can't bring anything electronic into the cabin.

I'm heading out to Utah this Saturday morning with some coworkers to shoot a location, and we will have a ton of gear with us, gear that I don't want to have some employee just throwing around. Me personally, I'll have my digital, medium format, and a few lenses along with a tripod and panoramic head (the tripod and head I don't mind throwing under the plane, I was planning on that anyway). my coworkers will have gear as well, digital 1-series bodies, some lenses and a point and shoot or two.

Anyone know in light of all the crap going on, can ANY of this be brought into the cabin with us? We dont' have hard cases for our gear, as we'll be walking way out in the middle of nowhere, so we are packed with soft backpacks and sholder bags. I have seen how airport workers throw around bags, and I'm sure a "fragile equipment" tag won't be of any use.


Grr.... I hate flying, even more so now.

[Todd Corzett]

There is a thread on SportsShooter about this:
http://www.sportsshooter.com/message_display.html?tid=21360

I'd suggest calling the airline and airports to get their clarification. Worse case you could run-out and buy some Pelican cases.

-Todd...

[Todd Spoth]

i <3 my pelican case. if you travel a lot or are walking to and from stadiums on the regular you wont regret it.

get a rolling one though!

[Daniel Buck]

i <3 my pelican case. if you travel a lot or are walking to and from stadiums on the regular you wont regret it.

get a rolling one though!


will the rolling case go through the deserts of utah? :D

[Todd Corzett]

will the rolling case go through the deserts of utah? :D
You only need it for the airplane right? Stash it somewhere and pick it up before you head back. Even a storage rental place is cheaper than damaged gear!

-Todd...

[Daniel Buck]

I suppose that would work :) I'll see if we can find some by tomorrow evening. I think I'll leave my MF at home, I was taking that for personal photos of Utah, that will free up some space.

[Jeremy Hua]

I've been watching CNN all day, and was actually up at 3 or 4am ET when they kicked in for the special report.

They said electronics such as laptops, etc. are still permitted on board.

[Daniel Buck]

the TSA websites says they are letting electronics onboard. "TSA continues to allow laptop computers, cell phones and other electronic items. "

we'll see.

In anycase, I was hoping to take some 6x7 black and whites of the monument valley skyline, I'll just take digitals this trip I guess.

[Drew Phillips]

Here's some good info:

http://www.aa.com/apps/netSAAver/ViewPromotionsDetail.jhtml?fileName=system_flightI nfo.xml&repositoryName=PromotionContentRepository&itemDescriptor=PromotionContent

[Dennis Murray]

There were some airports throughout the world that were banning all carry on. Check with the airline and the airport you intend to fly out of (both directions) and be prepared for things to change (for good or bad).

[Kurt Dahlstrom]

Yeah I was in the middle of this mess Thursday morning when it all went down. I was flying from SF to Denver for the Champ Car race. There main focus was on liquids at that point. Had to ditch my Pec-12 lens solution and sun screen.

I carry my photo gear in a pelican case that I can check, everyone in awhile it gets hand checked, but yesterday it went right through.

Now I just read a article about possible bans to ipods and other small electronics
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TERROR_PLOT_THE_NEW_THREAT?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-08-11-08-06-48

We can all pretty much count on this getting alot worse before it gets better, one day soon you'll be lucky to bring your laptop onboard a plane.

[Andrew Wheeler]

Total hysteria.

The reaction here is almost comical. They key is they stopped this from happening.

Nothing here was happening and so it's another case of shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted.

Being cynical, I'd say that this is *very* convenient.

We'll see how SW handles it when I travel next Thursday to VIR.

Andrew:)

[Daniel Buck]

Total hysteria.

The reaction here is almost comical. They key is they stopped this from happening.

Nothing here was happening and so it's another case of shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted.

Being cynical, I'd say that this is *very* convenient.

We'll see how SW handles it when I travel next Thursday to VIR.

Andrew:)


I agree, I think it's ridiculous. But then again, the media always seems to make a big deal about everything, so I'm sure the airports have to make sure that they have a very visible security process, otherwise the news would tear them apart.

[Jim Sykes]

I flew yesterday, like Kurt, from DC to Denver.

I carried all my equipment on with no problem in my Think Tank roller and with a seperate laptop bag, which also contained my cell phone and iPod.

To this point there is no issue. They did take extra time to look through and swab every inch of my photo bag and contents (which happens normally anyway, just not as extensive) but all was good.

This whole thing is a total joke anyway. Plastic bottles of whatever can still be carried through security ON YOUR PERSON as the metal detectors will not pick them up and they are not patting people down. And once you are through, I saw more than one person put bottles into their carryon which was not checked when we boarded the plane. I did see random carryon checks while an international Lufthansa flight was boarding, but not on my domestic flight.

If you are really worried though, your best bet is to FedEx it to your final destination in hard cases and simply breeze through the airport with nothing but the clothes on your back.

[John Thawley]

Why does this all sound just like the news reports of the seventies? "Local officials arrested three drug smugglers on a 12 foot fishing boat carry marijauna... drug agenst said the cargo had a potential street value of $10,000,000,000 dollars."

I mean c'mon... there are people who fly 100,000+ miles per year. Can't we be screened once.... officially... given a hard card and allowed to go about our business freely? Consider ALL the expense of airport security... yes, it's been reasonable effective, but at what cost to the tax payers, private enterprise and our personal freedoms? 1000 people standing in line barefoot is NOT making anyone any safer. It has to qualify as the histories largest ever BAND-AID solution. And we just keep on paying...

Argh!

JT

[Todd Corzett]

And you guys wonder why I only shoot in California!?!

-Todd...

[Daniel Buck]

our contact guy at work found out that LAX is not putting restrictions on electronics or cameras, so looks like we'll be ok.

[John Thawley]

And you guys wonder why I only shoot in California!?!

-Todd...

No we don't/ :)

[Andrew Wheeler]

It's the threat of seeing the green floppy hat...

Andrew :)

[Andrew Wheeler]

http://automotophoto.com/af1/amaMO2006/DSC00053_Wheeler.jpg

[Jim Sykes]

I mean c'mon... there are people who fly 100,000+ miles per year. Can't we be screened once.... officially... given a hard card and allowed to go about our business freely? Consider ALL the expense of airport security... yes, it's been reasonable effective, but at what cost to the tax payers, private enterprise and our personal freedoms? 1000 people standing in line barefoot is NOT making anyone any safer. It has to qualify as the histories largest ever BAND-AID solution. And we just keep on paying...

Argh!

JT

That isnt going to happen. These guys were homegrown Brits that had ties back several generations in some cases to Pakistan and they decided that they wanted to go about this deal underground in the name of Islam. Any one of them could have likely qualified for their one time screening as they didnt really have ties to terrorism till they started this.

There is no way to do a one time thing as there are too many sickos with clean backgrounds that could potentially be having a bad day and decide I'll end it all, but with a big bang taking the entire airline with me.

You'll never see it, at least I HOPE we dont. Current screening is not perfect, but its pretty good. It goes a little far in some cases and gets silly, but for the most part, checking folks every time they get on is going to still be the most effective way.

[Daniel Buck]

haha! my brimmed had is actually an old military jungle hat, it's green :D LOL

[Daniel Buck]

well, the trip went well. We were able to keep our camera bags with us on the plane. No major problems, they didn't even hand check my camera bag, like they always have in the past. ??? haha! The guy at the scanner just looks up at me and says "camera and tripod stuff?" and I gave him a nod.

[Erik Anderson]

well, the trip went well. We were able to keep our camera bags with us on the plane. No major problems, they didn't even hand check my camera bag, like they always have in the past. ??? haha! The guy at the scanner just looks up at me and says "camera and tripod stuff?" and I gave him a nod.

Lucky! I must look like someone bad as the last few times I've been either pulled aside for the 'shoes off, up-close-and-personal' security check, had my bags pulled off for swabbing, or had my camera bag hand seached. :rolleyes:

[Daniel Buck]

Lucky! I must look like someone bad as the last few times I've been either pulled aside for the 'shoes off, up-close-and-personal' security check, had my bags pulled off for swabbing, or had my camera bag hand seached. :rolleyes:

they have always hand checked my bag before, swabbed everything down because they said they couldn't 'see through the camera'. But for some reason, this time they didn't do anything. :)

[Todd Corzett]

On the way to France I got the "stand in the booth while we puff you with air" test. It was fun, other than the fact that all of my gear was sitting un-attended waiting to go through security. Most of the time I just get the extermal swipe tests done (OAK & JFK), but never even asked to open the bag.

-Todd...