Anything in checked baggage is subject to significant stress and strain as it travels from conveyor belt to plane and off again. Transport staff are overworked and apparently lacking in proper sleep. That's not a recipe for your luggage to be treated with kid gloves. The pressure to take off and our insistence on lower plane fares pretty much seals the deal as it relates to how baggage is handled.

What it also represents is a risk to passenger safety. Do you know what doesn't particularly like being bumped, dropped and subjected to pressure from an oversized suitcase landing on it? Gadgets with lithium ion batteries in them, and these days that's essentially every gadget, irrespective of size.

It's precisely why, if you've flown recently, airlines tell you not to try to recover your phone from a seat if you drop it down there. They don't care much about your phone, but they don't want the plane going up as the result of a smashed battery catching fire. It's also (and this adds more salt to the wound) why most insurance policies won't cover your laptop if it's smashed in checked baggage en route.

The timing is especially interesting given that it comes just a week after the The Australian Transport Safety Bureau issued a warning relating to the safe use of in-flight gadgets. That followed an incident where a passenger on a flight from Beijing to Melbourne had her headphones catch fire.

We don't know (and the ATSB rather specifically won't say) much more than the fact the headphones went up. Paradoxically, it's a good thing it happened in the cabin.