UN aviation agency urges balance of security risk, safety in electronics ban

FILE PHOTO - A Transportation Safety Administration agent looks over a passenger at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California February 27, 2015. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

MONTREAL: The United Nation's aviation agency urged regulators to weigh security and safety, after the United States and Britain imposed restrictions on several carry-on electronic devices on planes coming from certain airports in Muslim majority countries. 

A news statement published by the International Civil Aviation Organisation stressed a balance between security “risk” and safety concerns, because "incidents involving devices containing lithium batteries may be more easily mitigated in the cabin than in checked baggage.”