Underwater camera an air travel risk?

[Warren_L]

Recently I was aboard a Westjet flight traveling home from Mexico. I normally carry on my camera backpack (full of lenses, chargers, etc) and my camera in it's housing. I tend to get a lot of questions from people asking me what that is (referring to my camera in it's housing). Anyway, there was a delay in departing from the gate when there was an announcement made over the PA asking where the passengers with the underwater cameras were (I was traveling with another friend who did the same thing with his camera and housing). So we identified ourselves and were approached by a flight attendant.

The attendant explained to us that the underwater cameras were explosions risks as they may heat up too much and that we should have had pre-approval from the airline to bring them aboard. I tried to explain that the camera in it's housing was nothing more than a regular dSLR camera, much like many people have inside an aluminum case and that it posed no more a risk than any other dSLR camera than anyone is free to bring aboard. I tried to ask why they felt the underwater camera was more of a risk and was not given a reasonable explanation, just that it was "policy".

I've been aboard over 100 flights where I have hand carried my housing with camera in it without incident, probably with a couple dozen different carriers and have never had this happen before. Even with the outbound flight with Westjet it was not an issue.

I looked on Westjet's website regarding carry-on policies and found nothing on this issue. Has anyone encountered this problem?

 

[Nemrod]

That is a new one on me.

N

 

[Larry C]

Never. The only specific policy I know of regards Lithium ion batteries. I think they want them installed in the device, not loose. Only problem I've ever had with a camera in a housing was that it wouldn't open when I got there because of the change in pressure. I keep my camera in my camera bag and carry the housing empty.

 

[dhaas]

Any TOTALLY SEALED (meaning o-rings installed on back and port) housing will seal up tight due to most jets only being pressurized to around 8500' (pretty sure this is close on jet flights) no matter what cruising altitude you reach in flight.

In this case the pressure INSIDE is then trying to get OUT where housings are meant to withstand EXTERNAL pressure. Not good and causes a vacuum on the box......

If traveling with your housing in cabin either don't have a port sealed on it, or a port with no o-ring or no o-rings on back or port. I advocate putting o-rings in a ziploc bag INSIDE your housing where you'll notice them to install when you reach your destination.

These guys MIGHT have been gun shy after some camera was sealed up tight, maybe even turned on or started running (SLR-Video?) and got hot enough to "pop" a sealed housing

Just guessing, but not on sealed housings and change in pressure. that's fact as I've seen many folks prying their's open from the vacuum.....

David Haas
www.haasimages.com

 

[Warren_L]

I suppose it is possible about the sealed housing. For me, I always remove the o-rings in the eyepiece so that it is not possible for a pressure differential to build up within the housing. However, when I asked the flight attendant why there was a greater risk, there was no reasonable explanation given other than it was "policy". Plus when I checked their website there was no mention of this.

 

[fisheater]

I've found, in MANY situations, the phrase "it's company policy" is a substitute for "we're just making crap up."

This is clearly another one of them.

 

[vladimir]

On the other hand, one shouldn't expect a stewardess to know the physics of camera housings or the chemistry of lithium batteries. But it would be nice if airlines had clear policies posted on their websites.

 

[Doubler]

So how did you get the camera home?

 

[Warren_L]

So how did you get the camera home?

The flight attendant said she checked with the captain and he said it was ok and they let it go. I still don't know why they deemed it an explosion risk due to over-heating.

 

[Searcaigh]

I have only travelled with my camera "installed" a couple of times and have always removed the main O-ring in order to avoid pressure issues. Generally my housing is stripped down and packed separately.