Originally Posted by
jugofpropwash
I mean, why on earth would you take what you fear could possibly be a bomb and pack it amidst a bunch of highly flammable batteries, in a place where you cannot get at any resultant fire to put it out?
1. It's not a very big bomb.
2. Unlike a laptop in the cabin, the bomber has no control over where it explodes.
I presume the idea is that you're more likely to survive a small bomb in the cargo hold than wherever they think the bombers plan to explode them. But, as you say, if it explodes in a big pile of laptops, the damage done to their batteries might well make it a very bad day all around.