US bans “large” electronic devices on flights from 9 airlines

The Guardian reported on Monday:

“US authorities have secretly required airlines from eight nations to forbid passengers from carrying any electronic or electrical device larger than a cellphone.”

Royal Jordanian airlines took to twitter to inform their travelers of the news:

“Following instructions from the concerned US departments, we kindly inform our dearest passengers departing to and arriving from the United States that carrying any electronic or electrical device on board the flight cabins is strictly prohibited,” the airline tweeted.
“Prohibited devices, including for instance laptops, tablets, cameras, DVD players and electronic games … etc, can be carried in the checked baggage only.”

Although the reasoning behind the ban is not known Reuters was told it was due to a Terrorism Threat.

Now it is important to keep in mind that this ban will not affect any American carriers.This ban impacts nine airlines in 10 airports in 8 countries(Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt are on the list)  Now this ban impacts fewer than 5% of the flights coming to America from these regions. At first, I had mixed reactions on the ban. I felt this may be slight overkill due to my lack of knowledge I had on foreign airports. One thing I did know was that foreign airlines have been subject to terrorism at a very high rate.

My research led me to an article written in 2012 by the New York Times:

The programs reflect the Obama administration’s ambitious effort to tighten security in the face of repeated attempts by Al Qaeda and other terrorists to blow up planes headed to the United States from foreign airports.

So as you can see Al Qaeda is specifically using foreign airports to target the United States. Now since 2012 airport security has seen an uptake overseas. America has been able to put officers in the airports that have the highest amount of flights coming to the U.S. They can’t be in every airport in the world though so the threat is still there.

After my research, it is clear that the U.S has targeted airlines they don’t have much control over. If they can’t control who gets on the plane they are attempting to do their best to target what gets on the plane. This is an attempt not only to protect travelers coming to the U.S safe but also the airports they land at.