Former airport security boss: electronics ban makes little sense

A Syrian woman travelling to the United States through Amman opens her laptop before checking in at Beirut international airport on March 22,2017. Hours after the US government warned that extremists plan to target passenger jets with bombs hidden in electronic devices, and banned carrying them in cabins on flights from 10 airports in eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Britain tightened airline security on flights from the same region, banning laptops and tablet computers from the plane cabin. / AFP PHOTO / ANWAR AMRO

JERUSALEM: Even in Israel, renowned for its aviation security, a carry-on electronics ban on flights to the United States and Britain from parts of the Middle East and North Africa had a former airport security chief shaking his head on March 23. 

"I don't quite understand the decision," said Pini Schiff, former head of security at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport, pointing to security gaps in the new rules that anyone aiming to smuggle explosives on to a commercial airliner might exploit.