Pilots speak out, Feds keep mum

Pilots don't seem to be buying the rich-kids-playing-with-Christmas-presents theory in the recent rash of laser cockpit incidents.

Here's of sampling of comments gleaned from recent news reports:

"This type of activity is completely unprecedented," says Dave Mackett, a pilot and head of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance. "These have all the hallmarks of being deliberate."

"A few seem to be intentional, and we're wondering why and what's going on," says Steve Luckey, a retired pilot who is chairman of the Airline Pilots Association's national security committee.

"This deserves the attention it's getting," says Pete Janhunen, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association. "It just can't be dismissed out of hand as not being a threat."

"It's not some kid, it's too organised," says Paul Rancatore, the deputy chairman of the security committee for the Allied Pilots Association.

"What we're talking about is a fairly powerful visible light laser that has the ability to lock on to a fast-moving aircraft," says Loren Thompson, who teaches military technology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "That's not the sort of thing you pick up at a military surplus store. It sounds like an organised effort to cause airline accidents."

The FBI and other security officials, meanwhile, seem to be determined to downplay the pilots' concerns:

"We have no specific information that these incidents have any terrorism nexus at this time," says Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Katy Mynster.

"It could be anything," says an unnamed Federal security official. "It could be people got new toys for Christmas, and they thought it would be great to test them on airplanes—or anything else."

"As long as these lasers have been commercially available," says an FBI spokesperson, "this problem has been prevalent."

"Incidents have happened sporadically over time and have for the most part been accidental," says an unnamed official of the Department of Homeland Security.

"We don't know exactly what caused it or who's responsible—if anyone's responsible …. It's just a suspicious event at this point," says Beth Anne Steele, an FBI spokeswoman, regarding the recent incident in Medford, Oregon. (Ms. Steele also refused to rule out weather-related phenomena, such as St. Elmo's fire.)

I get the sense that the pilots are starting to get annoyed with the Feds for too easily dismissing their concerns. And, after all, the homeland security bureaucrats aren't the ones who have to worry about eye injuries (except for the paperwork-related kind).