• What's ticked?
• Accolades
• Contact us

c o l u m n s

• Cheap Charlie
• ChrisCrossings
• Err Travel
• Leocha
• Travel Notes
• Archives

s u b s c r i b e

• Elliott's E-Mail, a free weekly newsletter, is your insider resource for moneysaving ideas.

First name

Last name

E-mail address

Subscribe
Cancel

• Like what you see? Now you can become an underwriter.

a l s o

• Ticked e-mail
• Visit Tripso
• Referring sites
• Home

s e a r c h

• Find a story.



(c) Elliott Publishing.

Notebook Nemesis?
ChrisCrossings · July 8, 1999

Q: Can you settle the laptop-meets-X-ray question once and for all? I've been told that X-rays in us airports will not harm data on your hard drive. But I just heard that it's not X-rays that are the problem. Many of the conveyers that run your stuff through the X-ray are powered with the assistance of magnets, and it's the magnets that harm your data. Can you please clear this up once and for all? That arrogant jerk Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal has been refusing to answer this question for months.

-- Ron Lieber

A: I'm afraid you've heard another urban legend. No, not about Walt Mossberg (I've actually never met him, but from what I understand he's a nice guy once you get to know him.) I'm referring to the tall tale about laptop computers getting fried by magnets on the conveyor belt.

I'm not a sociologist, but I'd bet that this particular story is an offshoot of the old Sabena magnets-in-the-armrest rumor. Remember that one?

A little over a year ago, two reports were circulating online that the Belgian carrier had started using magnetic metal latches on some of its seats to hold the tray tables in place. As you know, magnets and computer hard drives don't get along.

The security experts at the Federal Aviation Administration I talked with all said the same thing: "nothing to it." So did laptop computer expert Bob Lawson, who runs the business travel Roadnews.com. "It's not an issue," he assured me. "The only problem I've heard of is when someone put their portable computer on top of the X-ray machine."

Like any other ticked-off tourist, I like to get the facts about what these security checkpoints can and can't compel me to do. I spent the better part of an afternoon reviewing the Code of Federal Regulations in search of evidence of what a security screening entails. I studied Title 14, Chapter I, Subchapter F, Part 107 on airport security until my eyes glazed over, but found little to suggest that anything was stopping a security guard from waving an industrial-sized magnet over my computer.

In reality, the guards send your laptop through the X-ray machine and then ask you to turn it on. However, the FAA also has a list of unpublished guidelines for security personnel that include a provision that you may insist on a manual inspection of your luggage - including your portable computer.

Why don't we know about this? The government is worried (and rightfully so) that if everyone balked at sending their bags through the machines we'd have a traffic jam at every airport.

Interestingly enough, my contact at the FAA said she'd be interested in finding a documented case of magnets destroying a hard drive. She said readers could contact her through one of the FAA's Web sites.

I'd probably be more worried about the huge unshielded magents in the people-movers at the airports. (Why don't I read more about those?)

Or, my personal favorite -- thieves who frequently scope out security checkpoints as places they can swipe laptops. When you put your luggage on the conveyer belt of the X-ray machine, the perp supposedly sets off the metal detector alarm. During the ensuing delay, an accomplice steals the laptop from the other side of the belt and vanishes.

Christopher Elliott can be reached at christopher@elliott.org. Or visit his home page at http://www.elliott.org.