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Fbi questioning people about laser beam in cockpits { January 1 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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FBI raids Parsippany house in laser probe
Saturday, January 1, 2005
By DOUGLASS CROUSE
STAFF WRITER
Authorities swarmed to a house in Morris County on Friday night to question "an individual" in their investigation of a plane targeted by laser beams last week.
The homeowner was later taken away in an unmarked car.
"We're questioning people all over," FBI Special Agent Stephen Kodak said. "We're working on an investigation that started Wednesday at Teterboro. All I can say is we haven't made any arrests."
A wider investigation of laser incidents nationwide took on new urgency Wednesday, after an unidentified pilot told authorities that green laser beams, which can cause temporary blindness, illuminated his cockpit during the plane's approach to Teterboro Airport.
The plane, a corporate-owned Cessna Citation with 13 people aboard, was about 11 miles from the airport when the incident occurred. It landed safely, and no injuries were reported.
Residents of Pitman Road in Parsippany said Friday's action began with a helicopter hovering overhead and police cars traveling up and down Pitman and Halsey roads. The cars then suddenly converged on a house at 19 Pitman Road and blocked the street, they said.
"Just after 7 p.m., cop cars zipped down the street and pulled into the driveway," said Frank Schwegel, who lives next to 19 Pitman. "This place was lit up like a Christmas tree, there were so many cop cars."
FBI agents, detectives from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and police from Parsippany, Morristown and Morris Plains were at the scene.
Authorities went in and out of the house, but would not comment. Neighbors said a young couple with three young children live at the address. The front yard had a large Christmas display.
Jean Marie Petrino, who lives three doors down from the house and was one of many neighbors who mingled outside, said she noticed the helicopter first.
"Our whole house was vibrating from the helicopter," she said.
"I didn't see any laser. ... I saw some helicopter," said Jay Patel, who added that the homeowner at 19 Pitman turned on his Christmas display every night.
Wednesday's incident involving the plane approaching Teterboro was one of several laser sightings pilots nationwide have reported to authorities.
In recent years, hand-held lasers have helped professors, carpenters and concert producers get their jobs done.
But some of the high-energy devices, if used to distract or temporarily blind, could render airline pilots unable to do theirs, federal officials warn.
Such concerns came to the fore this week following seven incidents in which pilots reported lasers being directed into the cockpits as they prepared to land. Wednesday's incident occurred at 5:30 p.m. about 4,000 feet above Wayne, when a corporate jet pilot reported flickering green light beams over 20 seconds as he approached Teterboro Airport. Authorities never found the light source, which was calculated to have been near Willowbrook Mall.
In an incident near Cleveland, a laser beam tracked a plane for a few seconds as it traveled about 300 mph and at more than 8,500 feet in altitude. In September, a commercial pilot complained that a laser hurt his eyes during a landing approach in Salt Lake City.
The FBI is investigating any possible connection or malicious intent. Although that possibility is being considered in the Wayne incident, authorities said it could have been an accidental emission of light or a copycat prankster testing a holiday gift.
"It's been in the news for a week and as more and more [incidents] have happened more and more press has been out there," Kodak, the FBI special agent, said. "In this case the light wasn't tracking the cockpit. It appeared to be going in and out."
Lasers range from marker-size blackboard pointers to carpenters' levels to powerful lasers under development for military use. Experts disagree about what kind of laser would be required to track a plane from the ground.
A memo sent recently to law-enforcement agencies by the FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security cited evidence that terrorists have explored using lasers as weapons. But Homeland Security officials have said they have no evidence that this week's incidents are related to terrorism.
A study in June by the Federal Aviation Administration found hundreds of cases, going back many years, in which pilots have reported laser beams penetrating their cockpits. But as with other security issues, the Sept. 11 attacks color people's responses to the latest sightings.
"What makes it different now and raises a little more concern is that these things seem to have been happening at the same time and with a little more sophistication," said Pete Janhunen, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association. "Even in terms of the color choice - green light attracts the eye more than red light does."
The FAA report concluded that "a laser attack could be quickly deployed and withdrawn, leaving no obvious collateral damage or projectile residue, and would be difficult to detect and defend against."
"A sufficiently powerful laser could cause permanent ocular damage, blinding crew members, and make a successful landing virtually impossible," the report said. "The potential for an aviation accident definitely exists."
Authorities said pilots reported three laser incidents on Monday, two in Colorado Springs, Colo., and one in Cleveland. Three others took place on Christmas, in Houston; Medford, Ore.; and at Washington's Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Kodak said it was unlikely the incidents were part of a research project. "I'm sure there are a lot of theories out there but we've not heard anything about that," he said.
Loren Thompson, who teaches military technology at Georgetown University, called the sightings a "rather worrisome development."
"What we're talking about is a fairly powerful visible light laser that has the ability to lock onto a fast-moving aircraft," Thompson said. "That's not the sort of thing you pick up at a military surplus store."
"It sounds like an organized effort to cause airline accidents," he said.
But Jeffrey Manni, a Burlington, Mass.-based consultant who helps companies develop laser products, doubted the incidents involved a great degree of skill or organization.
"If it is a group of terrorists, they don't seem to know what they're doing," he said.
Keeping a beam locked on a cockpit for several seconds by hand seemed feasible, even given the altitude at which the Cleveland jet was traveling, he said. A tripod-mounted laser would afford even greater stability.
"I suspect that they were using something light enough to aim at a plane coming in for approach," he said. "With a fairly small adjustment of the angle of the hand you can make that beam move over a fairly large range."
Janhunen said he hopes the public interest in lasers widens into a dialogue about the other continuing security threats to pilots and passengers.
"When we see an old threat that seems to be of new interest we should look and not assume that it's benign," he said. "At the same time, the industry doesn't want the public to overreact to any individual threat."
Copyright © 2005 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
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