Oh my, I just thought something nasty could happened last week. I went
to Houston to demonstrate a prototype... the same I put fire on my desk
days ago (shame)..., took it with me, since I was carrying just a hand
bag with clothes and survivel for a couple of days.  Taking the flight
back to Orlando, the customer gave me some samples and other stuff, so
my hand bag got a little bit bigger, but perfectly fit to take onboard.
The flight was really crowded for the stop at New Orleans (well, I can
understand), so they were filtering hand bags at the airplane door to
check it in to the cargo bay, and they took mine too. I thought for a
moment, nothing breakable, just a notebook inside but protected...
prototype is on the top of the hand bag, easy, let it go.  Arrived at
Orlando with the prototype front panel broke (plastic case), pressed
deep into the electronics... the power-on switch was lose with terminals
less than 1/8" from touching the electronics, but for a strike of luck
the same NiCad pack didn't short circuit. There was a (flammable) nice
after-shave lotion plastic bottle near the prototype. Can you imagine
what could happens at the cargo bay?  I really need to take extra care
with NiCads...  And airport security sniff all our luggage for
explosives... perhaps they should include NiCad chemical signature at
the tracer machine...

Andrew Kunz wrote:
>
> Thanks for the reminder, Bill.
>
> If you are traveling on a plane, PLEASE don't put rechargeable cells in your
> checked luggage.  Keep them with you as carry-on, even though they are usually
> heavy and a nuisance to carry.  It's a lot easier to extinguish a fire in the
> cabin than it is in the cargo bay.
>
> Remember ValuJet.
>
> Andy