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[Team Rancid]

Story

Authorities are investigating a mysterious laser beam that was directed into the cockpit of a commercial jet traveling at more than 8,500 feet.

The beam appeared Monday when the plane was about 15 miles from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, the FBI said.

"It was in there for several seconds like (the plane) was being tracked," FBI agent Robert Hawk said.

The pilot was able to land the plane, and air traffic controllers used radar to determine the laser came from a residential area in suburban Warrensville Heights.

Hawk said the laser had to have been fairly sophisticated to track a plane traveling at that altitude. Authorities had no other leads, and are investigating whether the incident was a prank or if there was a more sinister motive.

In Colorado Springs, Colo., Monday night, two pilots reported green pulsating laser lights shined into their cockpits. Both the passenger plane and a cargo plane landed without problems.

"At a critical moment if it's intense enough you might not be able to see down the runway," pilot Mike Hogan told CBS affiliate KKTV. "It's a great deal of concern because you don't know what the light is."

Police dispatched patrol cars and a helicopter to a neighborhood to investigate but found nothing. FBI agents were continuing to conduct interviews, agency spokeswoman Monique Kelso said.

"What's going on around here is probably just someone being a jerk," said Hogan.

Federal officials have expressed concern about terrorists using laser beams, which can distract or temporarily blind a pilot.

A memo sent to law enforcement agencies recently by the FBI and the Homeland Security Department says there is evidence that terrorists have explored using lasers as weapons. Authorities said there is no specific intelligence indicating al Qaeda or other groups might use lasers in the United States.

In September a pilot for Delta Air Lines reported an eye injury from a laser beam shone into the cockpit during a landing approach in Salt Lake City. The incident occurred about 5 miles from the airport. The plane landed safely.

Lasers are commonly used in a number of industries and are featured in outdoor light shows.

The FAA mandates that laser light shows must register their locations and the lights cannot be directed above 3,000 feet. Lasers are also often used by construction companies to line up foundations.

Interfering with a commercial flight is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

This can't be a few punk kids who got a Xmas gift. You have to have some form or scope to see and aim the beam. And 2 different parts of the country? If they were able to locate the area the beams came from, why no arrests or search warrants?

 

[cubanb]

this is real scary as far as a potential terrorist threat. I am suprised no major news network has picked up this story yet. it is more frightening than any terror alert color change

 

[BojTrek]

I just read that on Yahoo!, but how do they angle the laser to get into the cockpit at 8500 ft?

Do they use mirrors? How is is possible?

 

[cubanb]

I dunno, but it aint a laser pointer, seems to me some unauthorized people can track aircraft with a laser, does not seem to be a good situation to me...... terrorist or not

 

[Fowler]

Reminds me of a Tom Clancy book, where operatives downed a 767 by shining a bright laser-esque light right into the cockpit on final approach. Of course, that's the book that ended with a plane crashing into the Capitol...

 

[cubanb]

Reminds me of a Tom Clancy book, where operatives downed a 767 by shining a bright laser-esque light right into the cockpit on final approach. Of course, that's the book that ended with a plane crashing into the Capitol...

shit, clancy is printing old fiction... that almost happened almost 4 years ago

 

[Kon Tiki]

Damn those nazicomministalienterrorists!

 

[sefskillz]

I doubt they were angling it into the cockpit, it was probably just reflecting off several surfaces which might explain why it was pulsating. I really can't imagine this being more than a prank.

 

[BojTrek]

Hey Team Rancid... thanks for the picture you use for your avitar...

It looks just like my buddies wife, that I would do ;} so I emailed it to our buddies... funny stuff...

 

[Team Rancid]

Thats the beautiful and sexy Karen Dreams. Damn, shes hot. 10 times hotter than Tiffany Teen.

Your buddy is a lucky man!

 

[BojTrek]

Any other bigger pictures of her? Or any clean links for work?

 

[MIMIC]

This happened near where I live (Cleveland). Probably some random kid.

 

[cubanb]

Hawk said the laser had to have been fairly sophisticated to track a plane traveling at that altitude. Authorities had no other leads, and are investigating whether the incident was a prank or if there was a more sinister motive.

i really wonder at that height how this could be any sort of prank really

 

[Team Rancid]

Any other bigger pictures of her? Or any clean links for work?

I think her site is adult. I did find that pic on Yahoo images with the safe filter turned ON.

 

[Dan]

The US government has been pretending that terrorists and other nations don't have this kind of technology for years. Several years ago a military helicopter was sent to do routine surveillance of a Chinese trade ship that was coming into port somewhere on the east coast, just taking basic photos for some reason. The pilot was struck with a laser and they managed to get a photo of a red beam emitting from one of the ship's windows. He became disoriented and he's gradually been going blind ever since, and even after going public no one cared and the government continued pretending it wasn't worth investigating, probably just not to rock the boat with China at the time. Chechyan rebels are also known to have been using strong short laser bursts to affect the vision of combatants.

I find it really sad that we're now years later after blatant uses of this stuff and the government still won't just fess up and say that this technology is out there and being used. Anyone with a brain isn't going to buy that some kid's toy managed to do this or that it may not have been intentional.

 

[Fowler]

shit, clancy is printing old fiction... that almost happened almost 4 years ago

...of course, the book came out in 1994, though I assume you're kidding.

And yeah, I don't really see how a laser aimed into the cockpit of a plane flying at 8,500 feet can be a prank by a couple of kids?

 

[ShadowRed]

Anyone thinking this is a bunch of kids screwing around with a laser pointer from one of those cranes at the mall is seriously dilusional. I don't buy the terrorist angle either. Of all the things they can do, blow up car bombs, suicide attacks, kamakozi rifle and grenade attacks, I doubt they sat around and said, "Screw all those lets put resources into building a really big laser and shine it into passenger planes."

 

[SteveMeister]

You forgot part of it:

"Screw all those lets put resources into building a really big laser and shine it into passenger planes, hopefully blinding the crew and causing the plane to crash."

 

[ShadowRed]

You forgot part of it:

I think you missed the absurdity of that plan, concidering all the other things that are certain to cause death, a grenade attack, rushing into a crowded area with machine guns, a rented van packed with fertilizers. The idea that they turned down all those ideas for a shining a really bright light from 8,000 miles away and hoping it caused an accident is proposterous. Why didn't they just build a really big catapult and strap a deer into it and fling it up into the air as a plane flew by? Would have had a better chance of bring a plane down than this.

 

[pnjtony]

let's not forget that a laser can be used as a measuring device as well

 

[Crow357]

Well, the job of a terrorist is to create terror. I don't pretend to understand the mindset of people that chop other people's heads off and murder babies, but if they could figure out a way to scare people from flying, I think they'd do it.

Actually, I can't figure out why we haven't had another major attack here in this country unless they're ALL over in Iraq (which isn't logical).

I thought of two ways they could scare the bejesus out of people with very little effort. Pick 5 fairly large midwestern cities. Pick 5 dumbass suicide bombers. Have them go to 5 different busy JC Penney's stores on a Saturday afternoon and do what a suicide bombers do. We don't have any security. We wouldn't have any way to stop them.

The other thought was that you could kidnap a half dozen high school girls, video tape and display their heads being cut off on al-jazeera.

 

[alejob]

I was watching the news this afternoon and they said that the lasers being used were green lasers which are easier to aim because you can see the beem.

 

[Raistlin]

I've been hearing about this for weeks on the radio. I think there are two separate 'plots' however.

Blinding the pilots could possibly be done, but only in a take off or landing situation. That would allow the terrorists to get the correct angle to hit the eyes, and also be the situation where a pilot being temporarily blinded/disoriented has a high probability of causing a crash.

This lasers-hitting-planes-at-close-to-cruising-altitude thing sounds different though. Sounds like they are testing either 'painting' the plane, or at least simple targetting/tracking equipment.

 

[Dante]

Woah that's really weird. On my flight back to San Francisco this week, there was a red laser beam type thing being flashed around the cabin. I just figured it was a pointer that some kid was using, and the article says something about green lasers being used, but kinda strange after reading the article.

 

[cubanb]

I mean, these cant just be rednecks with a lot of technology???? right? its gotta be some sort of pre strike research..... pretty scary

 

[BigJonsson]

Uhhh

I'd be worried that someone has laser guided weapons somewhere in the US...

 

[gohepcat]

I'll bet you all a million dollars this is just a bunch of bullshit.

You people see too many movies.

 

[Matrix]

I'll bet you all a million dollars this is just a bunch of bullshit.

You people see too many movies.

In the world today,things you only thought you would see in movies...happen.

 

[aoi tsuki]

This lasers-hitting-planes-at-close-to-cruising-altitude thing sounds different though. Sounds like they are testing either 'painting' the plane, or at least simple targetting/tracking equipment.

But if it were used for targetting or tracking, why use a visible beam when you could use infrared?

 

[keiichi]

Not sure if this is related to the original article as this guy was caught in NJ.

NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) -- A man who initially claimed his daughter aimed a laser at a helicopter
was charged after he told federal agents that he pointed the light beam at two aircraft, authorities
said Tuesday.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/04/laserbeam.aircraft.ap/index.html

 

[sefskillz]

this has happened in like 6 locations across the us in the last few days. happened here in nashville, tn yesterday.

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

In the world today,things you only thought you would see in movies...happen.

I seem to recall lots of people comparing waking up on Sept. 11 to watching a movie.

 

[AstroLad]

this has happened in like 6 locations across the us in the last few days. happened here in nashville, tn yesterday.

Uh... it happens all the time. Lasers aren't some new terrorist invention or something. As a matter of fact, most pilots have had a run-in with lasers from e.g. light shows, construction work, and other industries, but I'll just quote from Patrick Smith, commercial pilot:

According to the National Transportation Safety Board and the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, there is a docket of hundreds of laser events over the years, victimizing both civilian and military aircraft. Records at the NTSB cite more than 50 laser irradiations taking place around Las Vegas alone in a two-year span between 1993 and 1995. Ten years later a similar spate -- albeit one less purely accidental, most likely the work of copycat pranksters -- becomes a small-scale national security crisis.

And if there's one thing each of those hundreds of events has in common, it's a zero fatality rate. Crews have been left disoriented and in some cases injured, but not once did an airplane crash. "In certain circumstances," reads the December DHS/FBI alert, "if laser weapons adversely affect the eyesight of both pilot and copilot during a noninstrument approach, there is risk of airliner crash." Technically that's accurate, though the "noninstrument approach" reference is only partly relevant. Conspicuous in almost all analyses of this weird brouhaha is a presumption that approach and landing are the ideal time for such an attack, when in fact takeoff would be the more opportune moment. But to truly grasp the improbability of a laser inducing a crash, one needs to understand those "certain circumstances."

Hitting two pilots squarely in the face through the refractive, wraparound windshield of a cockpit would be extremely difficult and entail a substantial amount of luck, and a temporarily or partially blinded crew would still have the means to stabilize a climbing or descending airplane. Surviving even a worst-case attack would be challenging, but not impossible.

To accept the proposition that terrorists are behind these events is to assume that gangs of al-Qaida operatives are hunkered down in neighborhoods throughout America, openly risking capture in their attempts to test out obvious, traceable devices that even when used accurately are exceptionally unlikely to bring forth an accident.