posted on Dec, 30 2004 @ 08:17 PM
I'm always open to new suggestions on this matter. What make this instance interesting enough to note is not the fact that aircraft are being
painted by a laser. This problem has been around for a while...so much so that the FAA put out a warning to pilots in the mid 90s and called for
scientific testing on the effects of lasers and air crews. Most of the past incidents could be explained away as laser light shows, military testing,
and civilian testing. What really makes these instances unique is their frequency and geographical locations. Multiple laser incidents on the same
night could happen, but multiple nights in differing locations with multiple incidents makes one pause.
This leads me to two possible outcomes. One, the incidents are freak coincidences of extremely steady handed drunken teens with nothing better to do
in various locations around a major Christian holiday or, pre-operational planning by terrorists.
If terrorists are behind the laser incidents...what would be their intended outcome? To blind the pilots and force a crash? Al-Qaida, contrary to
belief, is not made up of raging idiots who are hell bent on destruction at the drop of a hat. Mind you, these people had the patients to wait and
train for 8 years between 1993 and 2001 before returning to finish off the WTC. Trained as pilots. Pilots know something about the inner workings of
civilian airliners and the fact that many planes today can be landed on autopilot, thus if you take this fact into account, would a terrorist
organization with a organizational knowledge of the airline industry think that lasers would crash planes? I don't think so.
Which leads me into my next rant. Why would terrorist use lasers against planes? Two reasons I see. One, to train on tracking moving targets. Two
to test their coordination with other teams across the country. Every news article would be a justification of their success and allow them to track
response to incidents. Why use visible lasers? To track the response. To see what is done, where the police search, how long it takes to respond,
proceedures, etc. This insight might give them clues into what would happen if (and this is hypothetical) multiple missiles teams target aircraft in
multiple cities in coordination.
Or, could be drunken kids with steady hands.