Leuchars Resident Fined For Aiming Laser At Incoming Aircraft

[bad livin']

Apologies if previously covered, but read in a northern rag yesterday that a Leuchars village resident was fined only £400 for shining what was described as "a green laser" at F3s on finals in LEU.
Has anyone else experienced this sort of blatant stupidity? Surely this individual should have received a custodial punishment? His noise complaints are one thing - deliberate attempts to blind aircrew are clearly something else entirely.

[tradewind]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/10/terror/main660268.shtml

be interesting to see if this guy gets the equivelent of a £400 fine

[Green Flash]

Let him lase away! Only, he should expect a PW3 coming the other way! :E HARM?:E:E

[Gnd]

An AH guy had troubles down south but the 'local farmer' got let off and the AH boys were told to stay away so the F3 boys are very lucky (in more than one way I expect)

If we pointed our dangerous landing lights at the poor traumatised civilian populous, we would get administered - why have we got to endure the 'just culture' but see it reversed outside?

Brown Job will, I am sure, back us now?:eek:

[Double Zero]

This is quite a common problem, particularly for airliners.

Knowing the average Crawley resident ( and my apologies if you're one of the good ones ) I'd expect Gatwick to suffer this...

I've read here of people being successfully tracked down & prosecuted - though whether severely enough is another matter - hard to think of a way of deterring the gits without resorting to nasty pointy things which might upset the local housing values !

A police helo with Nightsun, or better still an A-10 firing rubber bullets ( ?! ) , spring to mind...Is it possible to dispose of airliner loo contents with accuracy - a mod' scheme is needed !

[bwfg3]

I've had pillocks with VERY bright lights pointing them at the aircraft while we were LL on NVG. I agree with above sentiments that these people should be in court if tracked, but then again, whats the point if the judge is a pinko?

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Anyone else remember the Tucano which got hit by flak over the Lake District?

Must have been about 1998, and the crew of a TANS sortie felt and heard an almighty bang while at low level somewhere east of Keswick (IIRC). Birdstrike suspected, and they returned to Topcliffe, though without any abnormal indications from the aircraft. After landing, the underside of the tailplane was found to have a shotgun round embedded in it. No doubt the culprit was just 'aiming at a pigeon'...

[Double Zero]

Dunsfold has an 'official ' gypsy camp right outside - these fine upstanding citizens were a constant pain in the....

Among jolly japes such as firing shotguns at the ( then off-base ) squash court doors when people were inside, sawing the rungs of the airfield water tower down to a few thou' - I found that when taking photo's from the top ! And driving our people off the road, - they also frequently tried to expand 'secretly' into the woods.

I haven't a clue who could possibly have supplied the aerial photo's to the council - after all they were next to an airfield ! - but I do know the pilots concerned generally kept out of shotgun range !

Same situation at Blackbushe ( where incidentally a fellow photographer was abducted by the local 'ethnic Romany citizens' ) and got away only by luck & his wits, another story.

The outer parts of the airfield were littered with shotgun casings from rabbit hunting, and it would have been a foolish security guard to get too interested.

I was amused to see in the local rag recently that 'green protesters' broke into the 747 at Dunsfold now - it doesn't have any military or indeed much aviation connection - all the engines are obvious dummies for film work !!!

Frankly I'm surprised there isn't more idiot 'Flak' damage, probably only thanks to the speed most low aircraft use -

years ago I was taking part in a paintball day at Lasham, ( alright, I'm a wally ) and was horrified to see that whenever a glider came in low, the game stopped & a lot of the prats fired upwards at it !

Those particular guns were a lot more powerful than nowadays, and though they couldn't do any structural damage I fear they could put a pilot off-stroke on finals...

If I were a light aircraft pilot I'd regard any paint-ball or gypsy site as a test-range !

[sitigeltfel]

I remember some clown being prosecuted for launching firework rockets at airliners approaching Edinburgh a while back. No hits, but caused disruption.

Back in the 80's some leftie types planted a CND logo made from daffodills on the road banking which passes the undershoot for 11 at Leuchars. I believe that the F4 crews could not see it as it had been placed directly under the flightpath on finals, when their attention would be elsewhere.

[PICKS135]

Whats even more annoying is that this gentleman from Leuchars, previously pled Not Guilty to the charges [according to local press]. It was also stated in the press, that RAF witnesses would be appearing at this court date. The 'gentleman' should have also been billed for the appearance and non requirement of these witnesses as part of the costs of the case.

[Double Zero]

Sitigeltfel, sounds a very tempting target for a bit of high power nose-up efflux treatment, if they were hanging around.

I was once on a large hotel barge operating from Dijon, where the canal runs close across the usual approach of the Mirage 2000 base.

One came over rather low ( I got a photo of him between the lock gates, from our aspect ) and I could see the next one lining up on us - just too tempting to not have a go...

He blew all the deck umbrellas, some of the chairs and quite nearly some of the American pax off the deck into the 'oggin - it went down very well, I think they wanted an encore !

[Audax]

ToTDevil, was flying out of Linton/Topcliffe in 98, don't recall the incident I'm afraid.

[2close]

I recall the local South Wales police heli was hit a couple of years back by local chavs in Swansea using a home made RPG made from steel tubing and roman candle fireworks.

Apparently, a normal 'sport' in certain parts of the country.

[Razor61]

Yeovilton pilots have had incidents with powerful torches at Merryfield at night:-
"DANGER TO AIRCRAFT. : There have been a number of instances of helicopters (especially close to Merryfield) being illuminated at night with powerful torches. It must be stressed that this is extremely dangerous, especially to aircrews using Night vision Equipment and has serious flight safety implications. It is also a civil offence, and the police are always informed of incidents."

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Audax,

I was also flying out of Linton in 98/99, and it was there that I heard the story - was told like a recent event, but could well have been a year or more beforehand. It might of course have been some young buck shooting his mouth off (surely not?!), but these tales usually have some truth in them somewhere. Sorry if I'm wrong though!

TOTD

[High_lander]

Camping with some friends a while back a Chinnook comes over (Obv. no-one was taken by surprise), a pleb in a town we were over looking decides to shine a light, but the twa% doesn't realise that sound travels slower.

All he sees is nowt and all we here is the fuzz bearing down on his still shining light

[neilmac]

At a JHC base I believe helos were constantly being illuminated when NVG in fields, a few days later sent the Police helo behind them who then turned the tables, a local school teacher I believe was charged.

NM

[cornish-stormrider]

I did hear a story once about a pilot whose parents owned a farm out in lincs way possibly IIRC. Anyhoo said farm got overrun with thieving pikeys and the law was powerless, they phoned the boy who managed to arrange a lot of low level full reheat time over the farm. Pikeys upped and Forked orf pdq. Anyone know the truth in this??

[Double Zero]

As well as the aforementioned pikeys outside our airfield, we had a tame one from another tribe as a floor cleaner...Quite well intentioned but not very close friends with soap.

She warned us one day " you should watch that lot up the road, they'll be in overnight and nick the lead off the aeroplane wings ! " Really...:}


It seems police are much too smart to fly or drive near the camps unless absolutely mob-handed to make the Alamo look like nothing.

Then again to be honest, before working in aviation aged about 16, I was sailing off the Devon coast about 8 milles off Lyme Regis at night when a Lynx ( pretty sure I recognised the sound even then ) hovered over us with no lights at all.

We youngsters were worried we might be about to have the CG or similar vectored onto us, and shone a simple torch up ( as well as having the nav' lights on ).

If I'd known then what I later learned about NVG's - and indeed I have a Gen 1 monocular on the boat now ! - I wouldn't have - in the first days of the GR7 OEU, the SAS's witty reply on a night ex' was to throw loads of flares etc into the sky...I know the modern kit is less susceptible but one could still well do without being flashed.

Snag is I suspect a warning to normal civilians would strike some nutters as a great tip, if they haven't read their Tom Clancy ( no disrespect to him ) already...