| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| Planes Approaching LAX Hit by Lasers |
| 2006-01-09 |
| This has ocurred before and was covered here. Islamic or not, this is low-level terror and it's criminal; if this is islamic (but I may be a bigot in presuming that), then it could be compared to the low-level guerilla targeting the infrastructures of the perceived ennemy in many countries where there are significant muslim minorities (cf. big rocks being put on roadrails or thrown from road passovers onto cars, trains or bus being regularly stoned,.. in France, or ocurrance of gratuitous firebombs attacks on transportation systems in northern Europe, as reported in one entry by Fjordman).LOS ANGELES - There's growing concern about lasers being aimed at commercial jetliners, lasers that could blind the pilot. Officials are saying very little. However, there were apparently two incidents last night. Pilots will tell you the two most vulnerable times during a flight is takeoff and landing because they're flying so slow and flying very low to the ground. Somebody took advantage of that last night and aimed two laser beams or several laser beaming -- beams at planes flying into lax. One pilot says any distraction in the cockpit can be dangerous, but laser beams have several potential hazards that can put the crew and passengers at serious risk. "The main problem is that the pilot's losing his eyesight for a few second seconds, which is very important scanning the instruments, sanction other air traffic and complying with the air traffic controller's instructions in order to maintain the safety of the flight," said pilot Andy Bagyuj. The FBI confirms two different pilots landing at LAX Wednesday night encountered laser light aimed right at their plane. The pilots said they saw three bright green flashes aimed at an American Airlines jet 19 miles out from LAX and a United 757, 7 miles outside of the Santa Monica Airport. This isn't the first time someone has aimed lasers at a plane. Last January a laser beam was pointed at a jet line out of Burbank and in December of 2004 it happened four times in six days. The lasers did not hurt the pilots and the planes did land safely. However, the FBI is now investigating to confirm whether or not those beams were lasers and more importantly where they came from. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #11 My bet is the flight was just disturbing some light show guys sleep and he got upset. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-01-09 22:23 |
| #10 Could it be for rangefinding purposes, you know, to find out where to fire your black market Blowpipe or SA-14? |
| Posted by: Rory B. Bellows 2006-01-09 22:19 |
| #9 We used small hand helds to laze targets from our aircraft. The light is a red line when looked at under goggles, but too weak to illuminate a cockpit. Ya, I know, we we not supposed to laze each other. Then we aquired some high powered ones. They were a different story. They would light up a cockpit with the glow 3dc is talking about and reach target a mile away. But at 3,000 to 5,000 feet it would have to take more than a simple pen or CD laser. Being a lowly aviator I can only assume it would have to have some level of sophistication meaning this is either a serious prankster or terrorist harassing/targeting. So how tough would it be to home build something strong enough to reach a mile out. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-01-09 22:19 |
| #8 ahem ... it doesn't take that much... 100mw to 2 watts will do a real number... esp if aimed with a scope. To see what I mean... take a laser and a light bulb or other globe. Turn off the lights. Hit the globe with the laser beam. Watch the whole globe glow and imagine you are inside. Now... the globe matches best with a bubble type copter... but any curved glass will do. BTW... not all UFO's are... some might just be lasers... |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-01-09 21:33 |
| #7 US pilots were lazed back in the 90's in the Balkans. The cockpit glows from the light refracting form the thick glass, red, green, and yellow/green was reported. It can cause perminant damage to the retina and temp blindness. This has to be something stronger than a penlight to really get ones attention. It has to be industrial or military grade to light up a cockpit like I'm hearing. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-01-09 17:56 |
| #6 Green Helium-Neon lasers (543 nm) are cheap. He-Ne lasers also come in red, yellow and orange. More likely, the shit was using a green diode pumped laser (532nm) pointer (<5mW). You can buy one for less than $100, and one in the 100mW class for less than a $1000. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-01-09 17:52 |
| #5 Old news. See: equipped.org comments on lasers pointing at airliners |
| Posted by: Thriling Sneresing9400 2006-01-09 17:50 |
| #4 green and green blue could well be from DVD players |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-01-09 17:10 |
| #3 Green = military grade? |
| Posted by: Hupeater Elmagum9270 2006-01-09 16:43 |
| #2 Green? Anyone know anything about green lasers? Red are the only ones I've seen..... |
| Posted by: Spavirt Crunter1721 2006-01-09 15:50 |
| #1 A5089 in LA it could be anybody. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-01-09 15:15 |