DOWNSIDES OF THE 21ST CENTURY: UK Planes Facing Laser Attacks. “Thousands of planes coming in to land at Britain’s busiest airports are being endangered by a wave of potentially deadly laser attacks from the ground. . . . Most of the attacks are on large commercial jets, but even military planes carrying injured troops home from Afghanistan to hospitals in the Midlands have been targeted. . . . Last year, 1,570 laser attack incidents were logged with the CAA and in 2011 the figure was 1,911.” Lots of tech talk about banning lasers, but precious little information on who’s behind these attacks. Hmm.