U.S.

Feds Dismiss Latest Laser As Prank

January 4, 2005 / 12:55 PM EST / CBS/AP

A laser beam aimed at a Chicago-bound jet may have been a prank, FBI officials said, adding that terrorism has been ruled out.

The flight crew of a United Airlines flight to O'Hare International Airport from Nashville reported seeing a green laser beam Sunday night shortly after the plane took off, said Lynne Lowrance of the Nashville International Airport.

The flight, United Express 7136, which had about 30 people on board, landed safely in Chicago. The airport property was canvassed and nothing suspicious was found.

"We know that there wasn't any terrorism involved and it possibly could have been someone playing a prank," Doug Riggins, of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, said Monday.

Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration, which are also investigating, declined to give further details.

Federal agents are looking into similar incidents involving lasers and aircraft, including cases in Cleveland; Washington, D.C.; Houston; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Medford, Oregon; and Teterboro, New Jersey.

David Banach and his 7-year-old daughter were playing with a laser pointer in his Parsippany, N.J., backyard New Year's Eve, his lawyer said. He spent the rest of 2004, and the beginning of 2005, in FBI custody in Newark, answering questions.

Authorities say the laser hit a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police helicopter carrying a top Port Authority official.

"I think they were pointing it at houses, and up at the stars," said attorney Gina Mendola Longarzo. "It's not terrorist activity."

Laser beams can temporarily blind or disorient pilots and possibly cause a plane to crash. Federal law enforcement officials have said they've found no evidence of a terrorist plot involving the laser beams.

But they worry the lasers could become part of a plot, or show how easy it would be to bring down a commercial aircraft.

"You don't have to be on airport property to use a surface-to-air-type weapon," Nashville International Airport president Raul Regalado told The Tennessean. "It's a quandary nationwide."