U.S.A.
Everyone Else
Health
Science
Business
Technology
Sports
Video Games
Entertainment
Future
Humour
NEWS > U.S.A. > U.S. ON RECORD PACE FOR NUMBER OF PLANES ATTACKED BY LASERS
U.S. ON RECORD PACE FOR NUMBER OF PLANES ATTACKED BY LASERS
October 26 2011
Washington, D.C. – Energy weapons have never, and may never, reach the kind of effectiveness and ubiquity seen in television shows like ‘Star Trek’ but that doesn’t mean that they still can’t be dangerous. Lasers are not simply the domain of military forces or evil geniuses but in the reach of ordinary people, purchased for a few dollars at a local corner store. Lasers are everywhere, though not nearly as deadly as once imagine they could become.
Or are they? A new report from the FAA has shown a major uptick in attacks on passenger planes by ground-borne lasers, setting a record pace for 2011. While none of those incidents has resulted in anything but a minor annoyance for crew and passengers, the growing number of attacks has the agency concerned that a more organized effort may be underway to take down passenger planes with lasers, prompting them to ask for help from law enforcement.
“Shining a laser at a plane and its pilots is very dangerous. You wouldn't want a pilot incapacitated for any reason and I don’t think that people realize how damaging these lasers can be,” said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.
No aircraft have been felled in nearly 2800 incidents thus far this year but a number of pilots have reported their eyes stinging deep into the night, resulting in a handful of compensation claims.
The FAA has increased the fine for shining lasers into pilot’s eyes in an effort to dissuade further attempts.
“There is little doubt that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of incidents like this. We are talking almost tenfold since 2005 which is really quite remarkable and speaks to the growing access to lasers amongst ordinary people,” said Scrape TV Airline analyst Jeffry Johnson. “Despite a great deal of automation in the process, landing and taking off in a plane is still a complicated process and it requires full vision from the pilots. Shining a laser directly in their eyes obviously diminishes their ability to see and that in turn could theoretically cause a crash. That hasn’t happened yet, but as this becomes more and more popular it is possible that terrorists will see the opportunity and try to exploit it to actually bring down a plane.”
There have been no reports of terrorist-related laser incidents. The highest profile case involved the grandson of Clark Gable who allegedly used a laser pointer against a police helicopter, which did not crash or explode or anything else.
“I think the concern is that this is increasing so dramatically. If there was just a handful of isolated incidents here and there no one would be that concerned, I think, but it has become clear that the use of lasers is increasing and unless they do something about it, it will only continue to get more popular as time goes on, and that lasers could potentially fall into the wrong hands,” continued Johnson. “While single lasers seem to have little or no impact, if a group got together, say a hundred people and all shot a plane with lasers it could easily bring it down. Such a scenario may seem unlikely, but terrorists do a lot of things that seem unlikely.”
Efforts to crack down on laser sellers have proven largely ineffective. The MPAA, the regulation body for the movie industry, has also increased fines for laser use in theatres, to more than 5 times the FAA fine.
Mike Michaels, American Correspondent
NEWS > U.S.A. > U.S. ON RECORD PACE FOR NUMBER OF PLANES ATTACKED BY LASERS
LINK IT! http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/usa/pages-7/US-on-record-pace-for-number-of-planes-attacked-by-lasers-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side-2011-10-26.html |
TWEET IT! http://goo.gl/bgsVR |
BOOKMARK IT!  
|
|---|
Scrape Store
