US security increased: make sure your phone is charged before boarding a flight

If you’re anything like us, you feel naked without your phone, and so you probably don’t leave home without making sure that smartphone is with you, but if you’re heading to America any time soon, it won’t be enough to make sure it’s packed, because it will also needed to be charged.

Travellers heading to America, there are some new rules are coming into place that will require you to make sure a device can be checked before you board a flight.

That checking procedure means the device has to be powered on, which means laptops, tablets, and now mobile phones have to be looked at by security personnel, with America’s Transportation Security Administration now requiring smartphones to be charged and able to be switched on before you get on the plane.

If you can’t turn the device on, that device will not be allowed on the flight, with the TSA saying that:

“Powerless devices will not be permitted onboard the aircraft. The traveler may also undergo additional screening.”

The move comes after a statement was released last week from Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security, who advised the TSA to “implement enhanced security measures” at “certain overseas airports with direct flights to the United States.”

“We will work to ensure these necessary steps pose as few disruptions to travellers as possible,” said Johnson in a statement on July 2.

“Aviation security includes a number of measures, both seen and unseen, informed by an evolving environment. As always, we will continue to adjust security measures to promote aviation security without unnecessary disruptions to the traveling public.”

So if you’re planning on catching a flight to America, make sure that smartphone, tablet, laptop, and anything else with power in it — portable game console, camera, smartwatch, etc — has some of that power left before you go through security, because if it doesn’t, you may not be boarding.