Laser Beams at Cockpits: Geeks or Terrorists?

[Chicago Democrat]

Poll question: Laser Beams at Cockpits: Geeks or Terrorists?

A "LASER" at the Cockpit:

[Silverhair]

1. Even those pocket lasers can be pretty bright.

They won't do any harm, but you can see them for miles if you are directly in the beam.

[DemGirl7]

17. those pockets lasers are fun to play with...n/t

[Silverhair]

20. Cats go nuts chasing that red dot on the floor. NT

[JohnnyRingo]

2. Damn Pink Floyd Tributes!

Subversive music.

[BlueJazz]

3. I think it's a geek but the Laser they are using....

...(at least in some cases) are not Toys in the sense of what we might give a Youngster.
They're expensive green Lasers probably over $500.00 and maybe a lot more....

[Guaranteed]

6. They'd also need some kind of most likely very expensive

equipment to aim it correctly and lock it on over 14 miles.

[abburdlen]

9. Green laser: $99

at ThinkGeek.com
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/

A never thought of a laser as something you bought for any youngster.

[wyldwolf]

4. Someone playing with their cats

[Guaranteed]

5. A TOY??

A TOY can not do that, folks.

That shit takes stabilizers and computers and stuff. I don't know who's doing it or did it, but that ain't no amateur, for DAMNED sure.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Doesn't seem so hard to aim

Can you see the plane? Okay .... now ..... Can you point to the plane?

If you can point to it you can hit it with a laser. Maybe not to shoot a missle, but to hit with the green dot? Probably.

Anyone remember Flashlight Tag?

[DinahMoeHum]

8. Here's Salon's "Ask The Pilot" for his 2 cents on the subject

Link:
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2005/01/04/askthepilot118/index.html

(snip)
Bombs and skyjackings are historically the weapons of choice, but they don't carry the sci-fi cachet of laser beams, which are in fact less dangerous, yet perceived to be more threatening. One school of thought proposes that terrorists have no desire to knock off a plane with lasers, only to scare us into thinking they do.

That's giving them too much credit, frankly, and we're plenty capable of keeping ourselves good and scared. In the meantime, our reaction to terror tends to be a quantum leap ahead of reality: iris scanning, biometric coding, elaborate plans to fly planes out of harm's way by remote control. All of which miss the point.

Listen to Michael, an Airbus A320 pilot for a major U.S. airline (who asks to be kept otherwise anonymous): "Here we have cleaners and caterers able to board and roam through aircraft with no security screening whatsoever, yet people are worried about laser beams? Our priorities are insane."
(snip)
Just how upended is the hierarchy of priorities? At most American airports now, passengers and their hand luggage receive only token screening for explosives. Fliers must surrender their metal sharps, yet aren't specifically searched for the most likely and dangerous terrorist weapon of all. Meanwhile, a pilot cannot bring a fork onto his own jet, yet caterers, cleaners and ground staff can step aboard free of scrutiny. It wasn't laser beams or knitting needles that downed two Russian airliners last August. Or Pan Am 103 for that matter, 16 long-forgotten years ago. We're expected to believe saboteurs would spend thousands of dollars on sophisticated lasers when a few cheap ounces of Semtex would be immeasurably more effective?
(snip)

much more...


:smoke:

[mcscajun]

14. I'm sticking with Patrick Smith on this one...

...and true...the 'geeks' in question might not be playing with 'toy' lasers like your average key-chain pointer...but semi-serious lasers aren't out of the range of high-income 'geeks' (although I think we might be giving true geeks a bad rap here..."assholes" seems a far more appropriate title for 'em.)

[InvisibleBallots]

10. today's geek toys become tomorrow's terrorist weapons

[MADem]

11. You need a third choice

For all we know, this could be part of the continuing "Be Very Afraid" disinformation campaign, with neither terrorists nor geeks involved at all.

[infusionman]

12. Anyone who

Points a lasar beam inside a plane for whatever purpose while the plane is in the air is trying to cause harm and therefore by definition a terrorist.

[JaneQPublic]

13. A carelessly aimed garage door opener (nt)

[donheld]

15. Terroristic Geeks

can't this person be both

[cruadin]

16. I think in this case it is probably some overgrown, emotionally...

underdeveloped geek trying to see if it could be done.

I think the reason it causes so much consternation is not a concern that pilots might be blinded, but the fact that some weapons are laser guided.

[slackmaster]

18. Drunken geek with a laser received as a Christmas present

:nuke:

[tanyev]

19. Sniveling cowards, apparently.

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

There's a nice childhood memory to look back on. "You remember that time Dad sicced the Feds on me? Ahhh, good times."