Canada pilots hit with dx laser!

The idiots are at it again, the link below is a newsclip found on yahoo canada. CBC news report of several incidents involving lasers and aircraft. If you look closely there is a cop holding what looks like a DX model. Cant be for sure but I think thats what it is. Im not to computer savey, so anyone who can paste the video on this thread, it would be much appreciated.

http://ca.yahoo.com/s/611496

I wonder if this actually is some kind of terrorist activity. I can't imagine a sane person going out and thinking "hey lets go blind some pilots trying to land a plane carrying hundreds of people"

I personally think that the ability to reach out and touch something thousands of feet in the air, moving at such a great ammount of speed, is a little too tempting for some. Now they are talking BAN, but I think thats for pointers greater than 5mW. Since ive taken an interest in lasers (since Nov. 07) I have built and experimented with different types and powers. But as tempting as it may be, I dont even venture outdoors with mine. I live in the city, and even if i was to point it at the sidewalk off my balconey, when there is nobody around, I would still worry that the cops would show up at my door simply because of the bad rep lasers are getting. This truely sucks, but what sucks even more is the fact that people who dont realize the sevarity may actually cause multiple deaths as a result.

I think it would be an interesting idea, to fit commercial aircraft with some sort detecting device which can plot a GPS location immediately and notify authorities whenever an aircraft is targeted. A device like that would pick up and respond to the lasers local even if the pilot didnt see it. And I would imagine the airline companies could spend the money to fit the cockpit windows with some sort of filter to avoid the distraction problem.

Dx and kaidomain are the main contributers to this problem imo. They aren't doing anything wrong themselves but their low prices make 200mw pointers accessible to anyone with $120 and paypal.

Btw I think the ban they are talking about is for pointers greater than a certain mw. Not hand held portable lasers.

The funny thing is, the airliners and the TSB are more concearned with playing cat and mouse with the idiots doing this crap, rather than taking a proactive approach. When the first incidents occourred, they should have taken every step to make sure that the pilots were protected. Instead the solution is investigate, which is good protocol, but prevention is what is needed to save lives. Just because they ban something, wont stop people from getting them and repeating the same act with possibly devistaing result. I mean what better tool can a wannabe terrorist own? Im sure that the same animals who kill innocent people by detonating themselves in a crowded area, wouldnt mind a life sentance for the same results. No virgins in it for them, instead 3 squares a day and a new boyfriend named Bubba.

wannaburn said:

The funny thing is, the airliners and the TSB are more concearned with playing cat and mouse with the idiots doing this crap, rather than taking a proactive approach. When the first incidents occourred, they should have taken every step to make sure that the pilots were protected. Instead the solution is investigate, which is good protocol, but prevention is what is needed to save lives. Just because they ban something, wont stop people from getting them and repeating the same act with possibly devistaing result. I mean what better tool can a wannabe terrorist own? Im sure that the same animals who kill innocent people by detonating themselves in a crowded area, wouldnt mind a life sentance for the same results. No virgins in it for them, instead 3 squares a day and a new boyfriend named Bubba.

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would it be that hard to just make the cockpit windows of commercial airlines laser resistant. It might cost a couple thousand dollars but compared to the cost of the whole plane it seems worth it. They would only need to resist 532 nm because idiots aren't going to know how to make a DIY 200mw red and blue lasers aren't cheap or powerful enough to threaten planes.

dang, what idiots, and yes, it looked like dx

We discussed this yesterday as well. http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1204826702 I guess the CBC never did interview Justin @ Laserglow. He was hoping to put a positive spin on it by saying how few incidents there were compared to the number of responsible owners. This is the first I've heard of a ban though. Better find a safer place to stash mine then. :-X

CC

Thats just it, whats the planes retail? like 50million or more? The beauty of laser is its single wavelength, block the most common, ie. 532 and 650 and its problem solved. There must be a way of filtering without having a blue or red windshield. If they are smart they would address that issue first and then worry about the meatheads doing it.

Curiously_Coherent said:

We discussed this yesterday as well. http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1204826702 I guess the CBC never did interview Justin @ Laserglow. He was hoping to put a positive spin on it by saying how few incidents there were compared to the number of responsible owners. This is the first I've heard of a ban though. Better find a safer place to stash mine then. :-X

CC

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If I had to guess I would say that most of these incidents might be caused by the same 5-10 jackasses. The authorities aren't successfully catching them so they just keep doing it to piss people off.

Idiots and lasers, I'm so frickin angry about this!  

Curiously_Coherent said:

We discussed this yesterday as well. http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1204826702 I guess the CBC never did interview Justin @ Laserglow. He was hoping to put a positive spin on it by saying how few incidents there were compared to the number of responsible owners. This is the first I've heard of a ban though.  Better find a safer place to stash mine then.  :-X

CC

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In the video you see a guy and a bunch of telescopes, that store is called Efstonscience located in Toronto. They sell an assortment of overpriced cool stuff from Edmund Scientific and green lasers with a max output of 5mW. Ive been a customer of theirs since my 5th grade science project, 20 years ago For some reason a lot of news people think this guy is the science guru of Toronto. They should be interviewing at the University of Toronto instead.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/309525 Related article for Pearson Airport



"The threat (from a laser pointer) is probably greatest when that airplane is a quarter to a half-mile from the threshold of the runway – when you're in the final 10 to 12 seconds prior to touchdown," Guetta said. "That's the highest risk, when you're moving from your instruments to looking outside. Trying to get your depth of perception. So you can imagine the danger of blinding a pilot at that point ... The pilot has very little time to react.".................

i would hate to be in either position, the lase-er or the lase-ed

[media]http://ca.yahoo.com/s/611496[/media]
hmmm..... cant seem to imbed the media.... :-?

Found some other reported incidents involving "antipersonnel" laser systems, definately an interesting read.  

Source: http://michellemalkin.com/2004/09/28/laser-injured-pilot-on-delta-flight/  



Anti-personnel laser weapons are inexpensive, sold openly by the Third World, have line-of-sight aiming, and are capable of producing catastrophic results if used against aircrews and sensors in flight (especially during takeoffs and landings). Commercially available laser weapons include the ZM-87, developed by the Chinese and first displayed at the International Defense Exhibition in 1995. In addition, the Russians sell a truck-mounted high-energy laser. And the University of Tasmania in Hobart sells a CO2 laser system for controlling forest undergrowth. The system is used to ignite logging debris from distances of 100 to 1,500 meters. The laser, costing $86,500, is mounted on a gun turret carried in a 2-ton truck and is simple to operate. Similar systems are available commercially throughout the world.

Data from the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System database for the last two years provide examples of commercial flights in which the pilots suffered eye damage from lasers. These include aircraft landings at Honolulu, Las Vegas, Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. In Phoenix, one crew member was flashblinded, with resulting after-images and loss of night vision for about 1? hours. Takeoffs have also been affected: in a 737 outbound from Los Angeles, two pilots were struck by a blinding flash that lasted 5 to 10 seconds. The first officer had burns on the outer eye and broken blood vessels. In a flight from Cleveland, one crew member received a bright blue light in his right eye and experienced vision impairment for the next 1? hours. Data from the National Air Intelligence Center indicate that, in the U.S. alone, commercial lasers have caused over 50 blinding incidents. Lasers have also injured a number of Air Force personnel. For example, the Palace Casino’s laser show laser-illuminated a C-130 landing at Keesler AFB. The flight engineer, who was looking straight ahead, was blinded for 3 to 5 seconds and then experienced blurred vision. The next day, he experienced eye pain requiring eye drops. In April of this year, two Royal Canadian Air Force helicopter pilots were laser-illuminated from a Russian trawler during a routine mission.




ZM-87 shown below, very scary looking