man charged in aircraft laser incident

Hi, See this article about a stupid idiot...

http://airdisaster.com/news/0105/05/news.shtml

Not sure if the incident has already been posted here, i did have a little look. (sorry if this is old news)

I am glad the majority of laser owners are law abiding, but its a (sadly growing) minority who can not foresee the consequences of their actions that make me think maybe greater restrictions upon their sale/availability/use should be enforced.

Daniel Carlton

I'm afraid this article has already been posted, and been the topic of hot debate, although this is another interesting take on the information.

~Gabriel

Yep. Old news. We're just waiting on his sentencing now.

Will he be the sacrifical lamb-- and simply sentenced to N>0 years, but forgotten about after a few weeks?

Or will the DA do the right thing and fine him and put him to good use under a community service agreement? I mean, the guy is an optics engineer. Make him lecture the public about laser safety and common sense for N-thousand hours.

If he's simply thrown in jail, it will do nothing to educate the public or even serve as a warning. Just destroy his career and family.

.02

PS. Attention to all news media. I will refuse to read your publication if the next laser article I see contains this worn out passage.<ul type="square">Last month, the FBI and the Homeland Security Department sent a memo to law enforcement agencies saying there is evidence that terrorists have explored using lasers as weapons. But federal officials have said there is no evidence any the current incidents represent a terrorist plot.[/list]This is completely off topic and serves only to alarm the public and meet the day's quota of "terrorist" use. You fail to mention the hundreds of other memos which suggest that terrorsts may use anything from chopsticks to chewing gum as a weapon, so please drop it.

Duplicate thread closed.
bernhard