A couple of weeks ago, I shared a BOLO about 2015 MacBooks and some HP Laptops being banned from airplanes by the FAA. The concern dealt with exploding batteries. Now, Virgin Australia is banning the 2015 MacBooks from check-in luggage; but, carrying it onboard the plane is ok. Aside from the current safety concern of bringing a possible explosive on board a plane, my question is who on earth would allow their laptop to be checked in on a flight?

For the average person, these devices tend to have a lot of personal information, notes, bank accounts, school and professional work. Your suitcases and sometimes just some of the stuff inside them just get “lost” during air travel! Who can afford to lose several hundreds if not thousands of dollars when airline losses your computer!

For the average attorney, not only am I sure the piece of equipment is more valuable in price (and may not even be an attorney’s piece of equipment to lose) but can you imagine the subsequent Bar Ethics violation(s) that would ensue!

Personally, I think you would have to wrestle it from my cold dead hands (and I really don’t encourage this; I would just take a later flight after I returned the laptop to my office) before I would let it get through luggage - I just don’t need the Bar Complaint.

What would you do?