|
Planes Approaching LAX Hit by Lasers
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 2006-01-09 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=139378 |