Over the weekend, German airline Lufthansa announced on Twitter that it would be banning AirTags onboard flights after wrongly citing guidelines from the International Civilian Aviation Organization, claiming that the trackers were “classified as dangerous” and wouldn’t be allowed inside cabin luggage on its flights.
However, the airline has now taken a step back, confirming that the it will not be banning AirTags from flights after all, confirming that tracking devices do not pose a safety risk after conducting a risk assessment.
Lufthansa originally (wrongly) said AirTags fall under the same category as electronic devices that use lithium-ion batteries, like the MacBook Pro, and not coin cell batteries, such as those used by the small trackers, and that the location transmitters on AirTags fell under the dangerous goods classification in flight due to the tracking capabilities, dispite the low-powered transmitters not being strong enough to pose a risk to in-flight aircraft equipment.
It seems that the airline has realised its mistake, with some saying the ban was nothing more than “a way to stop Lufthansa from being embarrassed by lost luggage.”
Priced at $29, the affordable tracker is equipped with the Apple-designed U1 chip using Ultra Wideband technology, enabling Precision Finding, a feature which, as a user moves, fuses input from the camera, ARKit, accelerometer, and gyroscope, to guide them to their AirTag using a combination of sound, haptics, and visual feedback.