Laser on a Plane

[Black]

Some of you will be thrilled to hear they nabbed some idiot...
http://ksn.com/2015/11/21/man-who-pointe...-arrested/

[OWC Jamie]

Now they need to nab the guy who fires at auto rear view mirrors.

Then the friendly skies and thoroughfares will be safe again.

[SDGuy]

The guy's 40 years old?!!??

I guess some folks never leave junior high school...

[freeradical]

It all sounds like bs to me.

Consider this:

- What is the angular size of an aircraft that's taking off or landing

- What's the angular size of a laser beam

- How likely is it that someone can point a laser at an aircraft under these conditions and actually blind a pilot. Do understand that the laser beam if it actually hits an aircraft it will be on its underside, and that the windows are generally on the top side of the aircraft.

- There is something called the inverse square law. Please Google this.

[RAMd®d]

It all sounds like bs to me.

Yes, for years pilots have perpetrated and perpetuated a massive hoax about being blinded by the light.

The inverse square law and laser coherence make it absolutely impossible for any laser to blind or dazzle the pilot of any aircraft. These pilots are obviously all ex-military flyboys seeking the attention they had in their glory days, all at the expense of good citizens who are just havin' a little fun. Cry babies, all of them.

You broke the case wide open.

Geraldo would be proud.


Do understand that the laser beam if it actually hits an aircraft it will be on its underside, and that the windows are generally on the top side of the aircraft.

Geeezze, that's funny.

Have you ever been onboard a plane in flight? At night?

If so, have you ever looked out a window at the ground below and seen lights on the ground?

Or were they all out of view because they were all directly under the aircraft.

Consider that you really aren't at all knowledgeable about the problem.

[space-time]

freeradical wrote:
It all sounds like bs to me.

Consider this:

- What is the angular size of an aircraft that's taking off or landing

- What's the angular size of a laser beam

- How likely is it that someone can point a laser at an aircraft under these conditions and actually blind a pilot. Do understand that the laser beam if it actually hits an aircraft it will be on its underside, and that the windows are generally on the top side of the aircraft.

- There is something called the inverse square law. Please Google this.

it is NOT BS.

They make small portable lasers that approach or exceed 1W. These are collimated laser beams that can travel a very long distance without spreading significantly, so your typical inverse square law does not Apply. Lets' make it clear: if you have a light bulb and measure the intensity at 1m and 2m, you will see that it drops by 4x at 2m. Not so with a laser beam. In fact, you could design the collimation optics so that the beam is slightly convergent and has a "waist" at 2m, so it could be more intense at 2m than at 1m. Sure, then it will diverge again, so at 3m it has the same intensity as 1m. This is just to show that the inverse square law does NOT apply.

And fact that windows are on top does not solve the problem. The pilots are able to see the ground. Then they can see the laser beam.

Laser beam in the eye is VERY dangerous. We take extreme measures to make sure we don't have accidents at work. I know people that lost vision in one eye, I know these people in real life. accidents were more common in early days when lasers were invented, before people understood how dangerous they are.

Also, even if the laser beam does not cause permanent eye injury, it can cause temporary blindness. In it like looking at the Sun for a second or so, after that you can't see for several seconds. You don't want that to happen when they try to land a plane.

Another thing I should comment is that most of these lasers are visible, probably green or red. The idiots on the ground need to see that they hit the plane. But they also make infrared lasers, and if you use one of those, the pilots are not aware they are hit by the laser, and it is in fact more dangerous, as it can cause more eye damage I would think. On the other hand, the idiot on the ground does not know when they hit the plane, so they probably don't use IR lasers.

Because of the distance to airplane is large and most idiots hand-held these lasers, they can't point it steady at the cockpit, they probably move it around all over the place, so pilots are affected only a short time, but if some idiot mounts this on some sort of device that is able to track the airplane, it could be much worse.

and finally, it is not only the pilots that are in danger, the aircraft probably has various sensors that can be affected by laser light as well.

This simply has to stop. I am not sure if a ban on portable lasers is the answer here, but it may be that we reach that stage. How does this compare to the gun debate in US? Do we ban guns? do we ban lasers?

[wowzer]

space-time wrote:
Because of the distance to airplane is large and most idiots hand-held these lasers, they can't point it steady at the cockpit, they probably move it around all over the place, so pilots are affected only a short time, but if some idiot mounts this on some sort of device that is able to track the airplane, it could be much worse.

and finally, it is not only the pilots that are in danger, the aircraft probably has various sensors that can be affected by laser light as well.

This simply has to stop. I am not sure if a ban on portable lasers is the answer here, but it may be that we reach that stage. How does this compare to the gun debate in US? Do we ban guns? do we ban lasers?

Ugh...watch those knuckle heads in ISIS pick up on this thread. I'm sure they will want to blind pilots as they land.

[MarkD]

There are lots of pictures/video showing the effect of the lasers in the cockpit. See laserpointersafety.com

[vision63]

Maybe these guys are just trying to entertain their flying kittens. Don't assume.

[Speedy]

One story says a CHP plane, the other says a CHP helicopter. My bet is on the plane to attract the idiot and then a chopper to track him.