The US Federal Aviation Administration has banned the 2015 MacBook Pro particularly those sold between September 2015 and February 2017 from flights after Apple issued a recall in June. Cupertino said those laptops’ batteries may overheat and pose a safety risk.
The agency told Bloomberg in a statement that it’s “aware of the recalled batteries that are used in some Apple MacBook Pro laptops.” It has already alerted major airlines about it, telling them to adhere to the agency’s 2016 safety instructions for devices with recalled batteries. As such, you can’t take an affected laptop in your carry-on, and you can’t check it in as cargo either. You can, however, take it on a flight once its battery has been replaced.
If you’re not sure if your MacBook Pro is affected by the recall and associated ban, you can find out quickly by clicking on the Apple icon (?) in the upper-left corner of your the macOS menu bar and then selecting About This Mac. If the Overview menu says “MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015),” you’ve likely got one of the affected models. Copy the serial number and then plug it into Apple’s recall site and you’ll know for sure.
Bloomberg says four airlines based in the UK, Italy and Canada managed by Total Cargo Expertise recently implemented the same ban. Apple already announced that the MacBook Pro model is no longer allowed in any of its airlines and said its personnel will remind passengers at the gate and before takeoff.
