Electronics Ban On Incoming Flights From Nearly A Dozen Foreign Airports

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – After 16 hours in the air, Emirates Airlines lands in Fort Lauderdale nonstop from Dubai.

It's one of three flights into South Florida that will ban most electronic devices in the cabin.

It's a new security measure.

Olga Nysiorska lives in Dubai.  She's all for it.

"If it's regarding our security and safety of course, yeah," she said.

The new Homeland Security rule will ban any electronics larger than a smart phone in the main cabin of the airplane.

Those devices will have to be checked in luggage --that includes cameras, iPads, electronic games, tablets and laptop computers.

It affects 10 airports in eight countries across the Middle East and Northern Africa including Cairo, Egypt; Dubai and Abu Dhabi, U.A.E; Istanbul, Turkey; Doha, Qater; Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City; Casablanca, Morocco; and Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In South Florida it covers flights on Emirates Airlines from Dubai to Fort Lauderdale, Qatar Airways from Doha to Miami and Turkish Airlines from Istanbul to Miami.

For travelers on long flights, the idea of no laptops for work or movies could be a problem.

"If you have to work and do some things it will be very unfortunate not to have the laptop with you," said Deborah Braschi who was a passenger on the Emirates Airline flight.

The ban had not been activated yet for the arriving flight from Dubai.  Airlines have four days to put a plan in place.

Intelligence officials are afraid electronics could be used to hide explosives.

We saw an example in February of last year when a laptop bomb blew up on a flight departing Somalia.

"Elevated intelligence that we're aware of indicates that terrorists groups continue to target commercial aviation and are aggressive in pursuing innovative methods to undertake their attacks to include smuggling explosive devices in various consumer objects," said White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

Administration officials say they're concerned about screening procedures in countries named in the rule change.

"It says to me that the United States has credible intelligence of a plot to attack an airliner with the larger devices that must be checked," said Senior National Security Advisor Michael Morell.