FAA Lifts Rule on Aircraft Note7 Announcements, But Device Ban Remains Intact

U.S. airlines no longer will be required to make preboarding announcements that the Samsung Galaxy Note7 smartphone is prohibited onboard aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a Tuesday announcement. announced Tuesday. Note7s will still be barred, but the “high degree of public awareness of the ban” means the announcements no longer are needed, the agency said. That Samsung has “successfully recalled” more than 96 percent of the Note7s shipped in the U.S. is evidence of “the awareness of the ban,” it said. The company is continuing its “intensive efforts internally and with third-party experts to understand what happened” with the Note7 “and to make sure it does not happen again," Samsung Electronics America President Tim Baxter said at CES (see 1701040074).