Authorities are investigating a mysterious laser beam that was directed into the cockpit of a commercial jet traveling at more than 2,591 meters. The beam appeared Monday when the plane was 24.1km from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, the FBI said. "It was in there for several seconds like [the plane] was being tracked," FBI agent Robert Hawk said. The pilot was able to land the plane, and air traffic controllers used radar to determine the laser came from a residential area in suburban Warrensville Heights. Hawk said the laser had to have been fairly sophisticated to track a plane traveling at that altitude. Authorities had no other leads. There have been several reports of lasers directed at commercial flights in the past year, the FBI said. The beams can distract or temporarily blind a pilot.
■ United States
Agencies still fighting
More than three years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, infighting between federal agencies has so slowed efforts to unify the government's various fingerprint identification systems that most visitors to the US are still not fully screened, Justice Department investigators said in a report issued on Wednesday. Glenn A. Fine, the Justice Department's inspector general, warned in the 110-page report, his fourth report on the problem, that the bureaucratic disagreement "creates a risk that a terrorist could enter the country undetected." In addition, criminal aliens -- people who committed violent crimes in other countries -- are often not identified before they enter the US, the report said.
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