Yet another laser incident.

[Arshus]

A laser ban would be unenforceable. Lasers are in everything: printers, optical drives of all kinds, electronics...every modern car probably has a laser.

I think more and more states will just make it a felony to aim a laser at a car/police officer/individual. In Florida its a 3rd degree felony to aim a laser at an operating vehicle.

-Sal

 

[NightExplorer96]

I was thinking maybe an age limit for purchasing lasers should be applied.

18+ can purchase one. Anyone below this age cannot, this might help fight again this laser strike issue and reduce the amount of kids with "high-powered" lasers.

 

[Arshus]

Domestic laser purchases are limited to 5mW in the U.S. anyway, so an age limit for that wouldn't be necessary. Hopefully our government has better uses for our tax dollars...

-Sal

 

[Javalin]

JetBlue plane hit with laser
Posted: Dec 10, 2013 10:24 AM CST




Man comes forward in green laser case involving pilots

I don't blame the guy for being worried. I have a 300 sq ft window that overlooks Tampa International. When I read it my immediate thought was OMG I was using my 520! Although I try to be careful and avoid hitting the windows, It happens, especially since I was using a diffraction grating!

But it was nowhere near me and I was sick last night. It was the night before last that I was lasing

 

[Tmack]

No need for excuses Javalin. Just don't let it happen again

 

[Javalin]

I blame the "distributor" of the diffraction gratings. I need to get my stuff set up more permanently so I can go outside to see what it looks like to everyone else. I'll be sure to post pics for everyone. If I'm feeling better tonight, if not look for them by the end of the week

 

[NightExplorer96]

Thought I must admit it is pretty brave for that person to have stepped up like he did.

He might have had nothing to do with it, but at least he is mature enough to realize he may have been at fault and was willing to take the consequences

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Shining lasers at people, cars, Tuktuks, and aircraft is a daily occurrence in Thailand. The peasant light vendors have green lasers and even blue lasers for sale for use on the beach.
Saw this a few times in Kochang. I was quite astounded by the complete lack of understanding of what they were selling.
A few times these sellers would tell me they could hit the squidding boats and tuktuks on the road at night with their green and blue lasers.

In Bangkok these lasers were being used at the protests to flash blind Police/opposition protestors.

 

[crazyspaz]

For those of you interested, this is what a pilot sees when his windscreen gets hit by a laser. As far as i know, the polarization, or whatever coating it is, on the window spreads what light hits it across the whole window, as to keep glare down when flying at high altitudes. When a laser hits this, it isnt just a dot like we are used to, it spreads about across the WHOLE window. The pictures on that website are from a 5mW pointer. Imagine if some moron gets a 1-3 watt 445 laser that is so common around here, and points it at an aircraft.

 

[uniman2]

that is pretty crazy to see the results of these dumb actions.

 

[OrionBLF]

i mean what kind of entertainment is it to blind a pilot?

We stand united that LPF would never wish for anyone (incl. KK) to be blinded by such!

 

[mojo_1234]

to be honest:
Every one shining a laser (any wavelength, any power, pointer or not) at an aircraft, any kind of vehicle, a human being or an animal is a stupid m?!?#*!?*#?* may causing a lot of trouble for everyone on this forum!

but:
Can't believe some of the stories about "laser attacks" going around in media these days. Some weeks back there was some story about a swiss pilot blinded for minutes when flying above 10.000ft.

Sorry, that's just bull shit! Just scare stories about these death lasers.

Faithful to the motto “go directly to jail you damned laser freak - do not pass go - do not collect the nice 10mW 589nm laser”.

Also I don't trust these pictures (simulation in a FAA flight simulator) shown in the link above. Why aren't there any "real" pictures out there? Why not doing some tests with a REAL plan while it is still on ground?

Guess the only chance to rule this out is to make a visit to the local airport, take a simple 5mw green laser pointer with me and ask some hobbyist pilot to do some checks.

This I will do now! Howgh!

-mo-

 

[Javalin]

The big issue here is night adapted vision. A bright blast will impair your "night vision" for up to a half hour. What if you are landing within 20 minutes? There is also the hazard of air traffic especially around airports. If you are flash blinded for a half hour how can you see other planes' navigation lights?

Most people don't know how to land a plane. Having taken classes and flown a plane myself. There are a LOT of things of pay attention to, but a laser wouldn't be too much of a distraction, the problem is that once you are on final approach you are using lights that change color to tell you if you are in "the sweet spot." It takes a LONG time to get night adapted from just a brief exposure to a bright light.

@Mo - Not sure about the coatings on the smaller Cessna type aircraft but those FAA simulations are to teach pilots how to react and what to expect if they encounter a laser. They were made to simulate what an attack will look like. If you do I'd like to see what you come up with. I have an aeroclub back home that has smaller aircraft that I'd like to try it on, but it's really close to an active flight test runway so I'm not too keen on using a laser around there.