CNN: U.S. warns of terrorist lasers

Apparently we aren't scared enough yet- we should now be worried about Al Qaeda weilding GIANT LASERS to down aircraft!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/09/ter....ap/index.html

And yeah, I REALLY just wanted to post that so that I could add this:

You know, I have one simple request, and that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! --Dr Evil

One MILLION dollars.

Lets see, I think I'll point my laser up at a plane and blind the pilot. The trajectory of the beam and the speed of the aircraft are no problem with my steady kung-fu grip

You guys laugh but someone will get a few million dollars from the US GOV to to study this laser excrement. I personally am worried about the Stay Puff Marshmallow man that caused total terror in New York City....oh wait that was movie

That would be why they would aim at the plane during the landing approach - nice and stabilised, all the planes following the same track. The terrorist could sit in the same place all day, lining up with all the planes on the glide path. They could just keep trying until they hit one.

Remember it is not like trying to shoot a plane with a gun, the laser beam goes precisely where it is pointed, at the speed of light. It wouldn't take a long exposure to do severe damage to a retina.

However I guess the corollary is that, if you are aiming at a plane that is already on the glide slope it wouldn't be too difficult for the plane to either land itself, or for the pilot to just keep going and hope for the best.

But the beam is very narrow and has to hit a very narrow spot (the eye) to have any chance of being damaged. And to have a real chance at crashing the plane, the terrorist has to hit 4 eyes (2 * (pilot + copilot)). Of course, as soon as one of the 4 eyes in the cockpit has been hit, the crew is likely to take defensive action (stop looking out the window), reducing the chances of further hits. And the hit has to be from a long way away (thousands of yards to a few miles).

A suggestion for those of you worried about this threat. Next time you're in a high rise hotel with a balcony in a big city at night, go outside and aim your laser pointer at the roofs of buildings and such at varying distances, preferably 1/4 mile or more. Try to hit specific targets (e.g. area above a certain window) without just turning the laser on and tracking the dot to the desired point, which would not be an option for the bad guy or his automated tracker, because you can't "track" the dot moving through the air as it approaches an aircraft. Now imagine that instead of targeting "area above a window, which is about 1m X 1m, you were trying to hit a smaller target like the pupil of an eye, less than 5mm X 5mm. It isn't easy against a stationary target and won't be easier against a moving target even with optics and guidance equipment and a bigger laser.

Besides, does someone on the ground really have line of site to the eyes of a flight crew of a plane on the glide slope? Wouldn't the angle be a little off unless the aiport was in a basin of some sort.

I just don't buy this scenario as a probable credible threat to aircraft, just as a possible threat to a few pilots' vision in one eye. Not a major threat to security.

I do buy this scenario though as an excuse for the overzealous government to impose disgustingly unamerican restrictions on "suspicious activity" of innocent citizens, such as plane-spotting, "loitering," and photography around airports. Or for something idiotic that will do no good but look like the govt is doing something, like a ban on laser pointers and CD/DVD drives (contain an IR laser) in aircraft cabins.

Weren't there tests of defense-related equipment that would blind enemy tank drivers?

I know there were appropriations for such in the mid-90s.

In the news today, SFCON, the Science Fiction Writers Consortium, warned that giant rabid mealy-mouthed rats could conceivably take over an airplane and use it towards terrorist ends. Alex Varga, SFCON spokesman, had this to say:

"It is just a matter of time. Advances in genetic engineering will continue to present Americans with an array of threats that Homeland Security refuses to acknowledge. For that reason, we at SFCON have started PP (Pre-Release Program). All of our authors make sure that the first production copy of their work goes into the US Intelligence hierarchy. We believe we can make government Intelligence better with information and the PP is a way to do that."

They're just coming up with an excuse for the TSA to ban laser pointers.

Yup... wouldn't want to down an FA in the aisle, now would we. Or, that readily ID'able FAM in first on his way back from the loo.

I swear this stuff gets more incredible every week!

Not a credible threat in my book. Just adding to public panic! The H word comes to mind here but out of respect for GradGirl I wont use it.

Yeah, and if you're going to carefully position yourself like that along the plane's path, I can think of a handful of weapons to arm yourself with that might be rather more effective than a laser beam. Unless you maybe had sharks with frickin' laser beams mounted on them.

My take; nothing more than a back-door attempt to do away with all airplane spotters and the like once and for all, effectively creating DMZs around all airport perimeters.

Anyone who balks about their rights being violated and the 'gobment' trots out this "specific threat to safety" or WSPTOTC [Won't Someone Please Think Of The Children].

Tom Clancy's novel, Debt of Honor, had an interesting idea similar to this. Instead of a laser though, he had a number of very bright lights (like camera flashes only bigger and brighter) that would temporarily blind and disorient the pilot while they were making their landing approach. A slightly more credible threat than a laser beam I think.

^ ^

I agree completely. Besides, only terrorists (or their co-conspirators) are interested in watching airplanes.

Pretty soon, looking up in the sky and pointing out airplanes to one's children will be suspect activity; expect Mrs Busybody to call a TSA hotline to report such subversive behavior. And then expect a notice of proposed civil penalty to arrive in the mail.

This isn't security - this is just more elementary school style pretend security dreamed up by government employees who haven't the slightest idea what they are doing.