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Is There A Laser Pointer Conspiracy To Blind Pilots At LaGuardia?

nov811laser.jpg
Not actually as cool as this Pink Floyd laser show
Laser pointer pranksters, be warned: the Federal Aviation Administration is coming for you! The FAA has launched a manhunt for laser-wielding criminals after a spate of suspiciously connected attacks against pilots at LaGuardia Airport over the weekend.

On Friday, laser beams hit commuter jets operated by Continental, US Airways, American Eagle and Transtates Airlines, with all incidents occurring between 6 and 8 p.m. On Saturday, a laser hit a Continental jet and a United Airlines Boeing 757, both at around 7 p.m. All of the incidents across the weekend affected planes landing at Runway 4, a notoriously difficult runway at the airport.

If you've never played with lasers near an airport, here's the deal: lasers are capable of lighting up the entire cockpit of a plane from miles away, blinding and disorienting pilots. It's happened before, but this time, the FAA is getting really real. “That’s unusual and highly disturbing,” aviation expert John Trisani told CBS. "Do we have people fooling around or do we have people who have bad intentions to airliners using a sighting, using a laser as a sighter, a weapon’s sighter, just to see the reaction, just to see if Homeland Security takes this seriously?" Because they are! The FAA is asking that anyone with information about the incidents contact police or send an e-mail to LaserReports@faa.gov, and that all laser pointers be used for their intended purpose, which is making fun of Powerpoint slideshows.

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Comments [rss]

  • Must be Al-Qaeda teenagers

  • The real reason behind the LGA laser sightings:

    http://toonzday.blogspot.com/2...

  • delicats

    What kind of lasers?

  • ahardy55

    Stolen entirely from the Onion: http://www.theonion.com/articl...

    From the flight deck, this is your captain. Just want to give you a
    quick update as we make our final preparations for landing. The current
    weather in Los Angeles is 67 degrees with a slight northwesterly breeze,
    and in case you're wondering why the plane feels like it's completely
    out of control, well, there's currently some fuckface standing on the
    roof of his car down near the tarmac shining a laser pointer directly
    into in my eyes.

    I literally can't see a goddamn thing.

    A natural question for you to ask would be, "What kind of sick
    individual does this?" On behalf of myself and my first officer whom you
    can hear screaming in the background, I'm sorry to say these
    motherfuckers do exist. In fact, there were almost 3,000 lasering
    incidents last year alone—enough that they even warrant their own term:
    "laserings." By the way, in case you're keeping track, that's eight
    instances per day in which a human being—someone with a conscience who
    ostensibly knows the difference between right and wrong—drives to an
    airport, gets out of his car, and entertains himself by shining a
    fucking laser pointer directly into a pilot's eyes.

    If you're saying to yourself, "You'd have to be a real piece of shit to do something like that because you could kill
    300 people," you'd get no argument from me, seeing as I am currently
    trying to safely land a packed 747 while human garbage is making figure
    eights in my window.

    Now, if I were a passenger on this plane, which I essentially am
    right now because this blinding light has basically rendered my pilot's
    license useless, I'd be filled with confusion and anger as to why I was
    about to die so meaninglessly. Also, I would be pretty shocked to learn
    that the biggest threat to air travel since 9/11 is apparently bored
    cocksuckers blinding pilots with the same device cat owners use to make
    their pets chase their tails around. So let me go ahead and give you
    permission to turn on your cell phones and wireless devices so you can
    call your families and tell them you love them. And while you're at it,
    do a quick search for "laser pointers and pilots." That's right, you
    live in a world in which the following news headlines have been written:
    "Pilots Report More Danger From Laser Beams," and "FBI Probes Lasers
    Aimed At Plane Cockpits."

    This is happening so often that the fucking FBI is involved, ladies and gentlemen.

    All right, flight attendants, please prepare the cabin for impact,
    and passengers, please take a second to ponder mankind's inherent
    ignorance and cruelty. Whoops, sorry, didn't mean to turn the seat-belt
    sign off just then. Once again, I cannot see what the hell I'm doing.

    Now, what this dickhead probably doesn't understand is that when you
    shine a laser pointer into a cockpit, it's very different from shining
    one on the ground. I imagine that Mr. Fuckstick down there is
    envisioning a comical scene in which I am swatting a red dot from my
    face as if it were some sort of nagging fly. That he won't actually be
    able to see me do this because he is nearly four miles below me, and
    that the only real payoff he will get from his "joke" is a deadly plane
    crash, makes this whole situation truly mindless. By the way, if any of
    you do survive the initial impact and resulting third-degree burns and
    are heading on to Charlotte, your connecting gate is A8—that's Gate
    A8—and that flight is on time for its scheduled departure.

    Anyway, as I was saying, when one shines a laser pointer into a
    cockpit, the light is refracted by the windshield and causes the entire
    cabin to be filled with a blinding light. Just a little photonics lesson
    for you.

    I literally do not have control of this airplane right now.

    I will say there is one positive amid all this, though:
    Statistically, it's possible someone on this plane has shined, or is
    planning to shine, a laser pointer into a pilot's eyes themselves. If
    I'm talking about you, please just sit back, relax, and relish in the
    delicious irony that you might die tonight because some other shithead
    is playing that sick little game, too.

    With that in mind, we know you have a choice when traveling and we'd
    like to thank you for flying with us today. I've just been told by
    air-traffic control it's too late to pull up, so the best we can hope
    for now is to crash into this fucking prick while he tries to run away.

    We'll have you on the ground in about 15 seconds

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