Got a call from my brother last night..

Apparently he spotted a helicopter flying by late last night and said there was an extremely bright green laser shooting up at it from somewhere on the ground and hitting it. :wtf:

I would not be surprised if someone was arrested, and I hope it wasn't anyone from LPF as I think most of us know better than that.. but the fact that this still happens on a regular basis is really troubling :undecided:

I just hope it wasn't some teenage punk. Gives kids like me a bad rep, and that sucks

Honestly, do be not surprised if I get arrested one day for....beating one of these punks up. It pisses me off how stupid and immature people are.

I'd love to be right there with ya! One of these days the government is actually gonna crack down on all us laser enthusiasts because of a few people. Maybe they just need to make aircraft windshields with giant safety goggles :na:

Addonex said:

Apparently he spotted a helicopter flying by late last night and said there was an extremely bright green laser shooting up at it from somewhere on the ground and hitting it. :wtf:

I would not be surprised if someone was arrested, and I hope it wasn't anyone from LPF as I think most of us know better than that.. but the fact that this still happens on a regular basis is really troubling :undecided:

Click to expand...

I was reading on laserpointersafety.com and I read that it happens like 9 times a night? I couldn't believe it...

Also, there were hardly any incidents in 2004, and now just a jump from 2010 to 2011 was 200 more laser attacks on helicopters.

Attacks? Really. I'm all for laser safety and I'm all for arresting fools who would jeopardize any flying souls safety. But I think law enforcement and governments love this stuff. Because there are no recorded incidents to my knowledge of ANY aircraft being crashed by a laser wielding idiot. Most of the helicopter incidents are criminals running from cops thinking they will blind a pilot at way past NOHD and get away.

I've seen the models and tests, and it is very hard to directly affect a pilot with most laser pointers. A typical eBay greenie is a laughing matter. But the police will make it seem like their lives are on the line and soon they will be yet another reason to arrest someone.

He had evil marijuana weed, some pain pills and A GREEN LASER POINTER so we shot him Sarge!

Makes me sad, I really want laser to stay legal.

I always say .. they shine at pilots ? Bad news .. but at least they don't shine it at drivers. Driver has always something nearby to crash into. Imagine being flashed with 400mW green on highway at night. Even if the don't hit your eyes you might be dazzled or generate some instinct reaction.
So I say .. ban ? No ! Regulate ? Yes !

The dummies that do this sort of thing don;t realize how easy it is to get caught. They think that because its dark and they are on the ground and the helicopter is up there that the cannot see them. But its actually very easy to see who's on the ground. Plus the cops up there have infrared night vision, video downlinks, and high intensity spotlights. Once they spot the person they track his every move till he's caught.

A fool in my general area tried this one night. He pointed it at the police chopper. Moments later he was in custody, standing in front of his home, with the laser still in his hand.

There are some very foolish people out there.

Especially since most of these idiots are probably using a <50mW greenie they got on Amazon or EBay that is harmless, but gives the police a chance to take them in...

I kind of get it. I'm an amateur photographer. First thing you do with a good, long zoom is try and take pictures of a plane as it flies overhead. Then you Ooh and Ahh over how you were able to get the shot.

Same bit of human nature on a laser. "I wonder if it will reach?"

Only problem is that it DOES reach and under some circumstances can be a nuisance or worse to a pilot carrying 300 souls on board. So even though you are thinking, "no way this will hurt anything" your mind isn't realizing that the stakes are just too high to be taking even a small, unlikely chance that it might cause a crash.

Sorry guys. I won't do it again.

It really annoys me that people do this, it's one of the main reasons Australia now has such strict laser laws.