Bears repeating.
This blog would have more credibility if they included the worship habits of the so called "prankster".
I don't know all the background here, but it seems like it would be awful tough to shine a laser from the ground into the cockpit of an airplane traveling at, what, 400 mph? Wouldn't you need some kind of tracking device, or something more advanced than a hand and a laser pointer? Who was this guy anyway? What's to say he didn't have the word "Muhamed" in his name?
Owl_Eagle
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
There's so much squabbling between the different agencies that make up DHS, The right hand, most of the time doesn't know what the left hand is doing.
They should NOT play this down. While this incident may have been innocent, it needs to be pointed out (sorry about the pun) that it is a federal offense to direct a laser at an aircraft. From the stories I have read, the lasers that are being used in the majority of cases are not the $19.95 electronic toy version, they are much more sophisticated and expensive, although readily available for legitimate construction use such as foundation leveling and pipe laying. If these sort of incidents continue, regulation/registration/licensing of these types of lasers will be eventually become a requirement which will result in increased housing costs. That is why kids and adults who haven't quite grown up yet need to cut this crap out...it is NOT funny.
I still can't figure out how someone on the ground, underneath a plane, can shine anything into the cockpit...