Laser Shined In Cockpit Of Orlando Flight

[Minstrel Boy]

Laser Shined In Cockpit Of Orlando Flight

12:32 am EST February 26, 2005

A Northwest airliner out of Orlando, Fla., was one of two in which pilots said laser lights were shined into the cockpits Thursday, Local 6 News has learned.

The plane out of Orlando landed Thursday night at Detroit Metropolitan Airport followed by another flight from Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Both pilots told air traffic controllers that green laser lights came from an area along Interstate 94 near the airport.

In the last four months, the FAA has received dozens of reports of similar incidents throughout the country.

http://www.local6.com/travelgetaways/4235122/detail.html

[Goldmund]

1. This is really weird...

...how hard is it to track down the origin of laser beam? I understand that they couldn't track it down EVERY TIME, but this seems to be happening once a week or something.

I've also read that the government is testing lasers to alert pilots when they've entered no-fly zones... :shrug:

[Orsino]

9. How hard? Try impossible.

The crew of the plane would have to react in seconds with some sort of camera hooked into GPS--while they are supposed to be flying the aircraft.

No one other than the laser gunner himself will know where the source is.

[Why Syzygy]

2. More

http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/022605/loc_laser%20light001.shtml
(cuts)
A helicopter crew from the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township was used this week to search for whoever pointed a red laser at airplanes landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Lt. Joshua Miller, the pilot who flew the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter Thursday night, said no one was spotted on the ground pointing a laser, which could disorient pilots during the critical stages of takeoffs and landings. Miller said his crew was accompanied by an agent from the Detroit FBI office.

"We provided the FBI with a bird's eye view of the area," said Miller, noting the search centered in the Livonia area.

FBI Special Agent Terry Booth confirmed that an agent was aboard the helicopter looking for a suspect. Booth said local police were in the area on the ground hoping to make an arrest. Booth declined to elaborate on what authorities might have learned during the search.

(cut)

Is it red or green. Or does it matter?

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&ncl=http://www.local6.com/travelgetaways/4235122/detail.html

Why is this 'news' when so much is not?

[JohnOneillsMemory]

3. Isn't a laser warning going to be used to warn of restricted air over DC??

I thought I recently read of a plan to use lasers to warn pilots visually when they stray into restricted air space to avoid having to scramble fighter jets.

Is this a covert testing of this system to see if it will disrupt pilot operation of their planes with the added use of more news cycle terror?

I think so...

[Skink]

4. Another color coded system?

:bounce:

[mahatmakanejeeves]

17. lasers to warn pilots

CNN article

USA Today article

Lasers: NORAD's Got a "Good" One ...

>>
As pilots all over the country report being temporarily blinded, as the TSA issues warnings that terrorists might be using lasers to blind pilots to bring down airliners and as the FAA and FBI begin a concerted effort to find and prosecute lasing suspects, NORAD is planning to shine lasers into your cockpit if you bust the ADIZ around Washington, D.C. And in what must be the media-relations challenge of the year, Mike Kucharek, chief of media relations for NORAD, is trying to help us tell the difference between good lasers (NORAD's) and bad lasers (everyone else's?).
<<

[Demit]

5. if it's not a taser story, it's a laser story. Coincidence?

Or just rhyming words? Hmmmm.....

[Liberal Veteran]

6. I still wonder how someone could manage to do this.

Given the orientation of the cockpit and the speed of the plane, it seems like it would be pretty difficult to achieve for more than a split second.

[arwalden]

7. I've Used A Laser Pointer In A Classroom Setting...

... and tried to point the beam of light on the image being displayed through an overhead projector (remember those?...before Powerpoint and before projection monitors).

Even across a 20' room, it was difficult to hit my mark. How can someone with a handheld laser device manage to hit a moving target at that distance? If their hand were to move a hair's width, that would cause the "tip" of the laser (at a half-mile distance) to shift by YARDS!

That's some damned PRECISE aiming!

[KittyWampus]

19. Simple, Try NOT Aiming At Anything In Particular Except The Plane

As in.... just pointing the laser up towards the nose of a plane and moving the laser around randomly in circles while keeping it trained in the general area of the nose.

Eventually, if you do it enough times, the laser would go through the windows.

[Selteri]

8. Agreed, this kind of laser lighting requires the use of a tracking

computer which suggests it's something higher tech than they are leading us to believe.

[patricia92243]

10. So, is it UFO's or terriorists?

[Baclava]

11. Cattle mutilations are so 80's.......

Sounds like someone's found a new game......

[Octafish]

13. Anything new in crop circles?

It's possible a couple of drunken ex-RAF noncoms dreamt this up.

[daleo]

14. UFTs

Unidentified Flying Terrorists. It's going to be the next big thing in fear mongering.

They are generally unidentified unless the authorities find a passport that survives a tremendous conflagration.

[Lizzie Borden]

15. UFT! Loved it!

LOL!:D

[Ezlivin]

12. I got kicked out of a topless bar because of a laser

That dancer had no problem finding the source and pointing the bouncers my way.

She told them, "I didn't want to get my skin burned."

And I thought I was just highlighting certain aspects of her anatomy. :evilgrin:

You can have a lot of fun with laser pointers, but I don't think you can do any damage.

[ccarter84]

16. only damage to the eyes, diff b/w green and red are

green is higher power and more visible (2 miles? atleast) whereas red fades away quicker and is only good for a couple hundred feet I think...

[Bluebear]

18. Here's a good illustration where the LBN rule doesn't help

The incident happened in Detroit, not Orlando but since you have to match the headline exactly.. :)