Laser Pointer gets 18 months. About time.

[MakeItHappenCaptain]

Good call, legal system.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCzCv-2Dqtg&feature=youtube_gdata_player


:D:D:D

[Kharon]

Legally caught, legally tried, legally convicted. Great stuff.

Shame they did'nt flog the little B@#$%^d. http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/thumbs.gif

[Dangnammit]

If only he was as bright as that laser.
Really, of all the possible aircraft, who shines a laser at a police chopper? :ouch:
This will make some little stihs think twice now.

[romeocharlie]

Unfortunately other morons don't learn from this. Had same happen twice only a month ago both Essendon and Shepp. Agree they should be beaten - they won't think that's so humourous.

[Super Cecil]

Seems like they take that sort of thing seriously with their own. When I complained about a bullet hole through the aircraft they weren't interested.

[Brian Abraham]

When I complained about a bullet hole through the aircraft they weren't interestedPerhaps a little hard to trace after the event who may have been responsible. They were very quick off the mark when some one rang our firm and told them they were going to shoot down that aircraft doing early evening night circuits. Identified them selves in the phone call to the firm, police visited address, riot act read and no further problem from then on.

[b_sta]

Great, but now I want to see the same thing happen to those who shine lasers at non-police aircraft...

[Mr.Buzzy]

Sadly, this country is full of morons.

Just look at what happened in Melbourne last night. 200 rocks thrown at cars from a freeway overpass.

That saddest part is the "oh silly kids" brigade that will defend them!

Bbbbbbbbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzzzzzzzzz

[baswell]

This will make some little stihs think twice now.
You are working on the assumption that this news reaches other little ****s...

As for the sentencing: as a deterrent, humiliating community service, house arrest and/or curfews would probably have been just as effective.

Now some kid is going to jail for at least 18 months and we all know the statistics about people going in for relatively minor things and then coming out as proper crims...

(There may be prior convictions we don't know about that make this sentence more reasonable in this case, though.)

[SgtBundy]

No, just put them in the front seat of an aircraft and have the pilot enter a spin, close their eyes and release the controls. When the pilot can smell that they have learned their lesson, commence recovery.

[JustJoinedToSearch]

The evil arab kid gets jail time for shining the l@aser at a cop chopper.

Don't get too excitied. Somehow I don't think this will be the ushering in of a new 'no leniency' approach to these wankers.

Mr and Mrs Jones' little ****head won't get anywhere near the same penalty when he blinds the fully loaded chieftain driver trying to avoid hitting all those houses landing at EN or MB.

[danielrigano]

Awesome video! I just bought a 200mw red laser pointer (http://www.freaklasers.com/200mW-Red-Lasers.html).

[jas24zzk]

There was one here in Vic in the news. Same thing.

Kid with a laser he brought in Malaysia. 60x more powerful than the legal maximum for such devices.

IIRC, the punishment was, 2k to the courts, 1.5k to the Blue Ribbon Foundation.

[Captain Sand Dune]

That saddest part is the "oh silly kids" brigade that will defend them!

......two......three.....

As for the sentencing: as a deterrent, humiliating community service, house arrest and/or curfews would probably have been just as effective. Now some kid is going to jail for at least 18 months and we all know the statistics about people going in for relatively minor things and then coming out as proper crims...

[Homesick-Angel]

Would be nice if it was just little sh1ts, but a brief search of the Internet will show that there is whole world of big ****s doing the same thing.
I experienced it on my first ever night nav, and I am glad I had an instructor sitting next to me at the time as it totally screwed my vision for about 2 minutes.
Twits.

[kalavo]

As for the sentencing: as a deterrent, humiliating community service, house arrest and/or curfews would probably have been just as effective. Now some kid is going to jail for at least 18 months and we all know the statistics about people going in for relatively minor things and then coming out as proper crims...

Attempted murder by whatever means is hardly relatively minor.

[knightflyer]

Attempted murder by whatever means is hardly relatively minor.

Close but no cigar, personally I think they are trying to cause an aircraft to crash in an urban area with mass loss of life, that is terrorism. Arrest the the morons under those laws, not the nancy charges they face now.:ugh:
I must just be lucky as I have been lasered three times, :mad: not funny. No one caught. Also not funny.

KF

[eocvictim]

Thank god every idiot with a laser reads PPRuNE. At least that will guarantee this never, ever happens again. :rolleyes:

I refuse to watch tabloid crap and I doubt your average village idiot is watching ABC 24 but how much coverage did this actually get because this is the first I've seen of it. I can't imagine it received much more than this "report" so how effective would it be as a deterrent? If it prevented me from being "lasered" for an 11th time I might think it's appropriate but frankly I think it's a waste. I would have rather another VOR installed than paying for this idiot to twiddle his thumbs while he thinks about what he's done.

[Wally Mk2]

Look obviously this event won't stop too many more idiots doing the same thing as people 4get after time. But at least this particular moron got caught & was taken out of the equation for now 'cause if he didn't get caught then we could all very well have been back here a night or two latter discussing the deaths of many! It will sadly take a death or two to make these events more public knowledge.

Interference to a plane isn't big news unless it's got a red rat on the tail!


Wmk2

[Ando1Bar]

At least the culprit in this case received some sort of punishment. It wasn't long ago my 'mate' got off without conviction despite being caught in the act. He should have known better too - he was learning to fly at the time.

For those playing along at home:

Learner pilot 'endangered life' with laser beam prank (http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/learner-pilot-endangered-life-with-laser-beam-prank-20090917-fswm.html)

Ex-Grammar student fine for laser shine (http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/exgrammar-student-fine-for-laser-shine-20090930-gcgn.html)

Where's the consistency? Maybe the plane I was flying was too small...

[baswell]

I would have rather another VOR installed than paying for this idiot to twiddle his thumbs while he thinks about what he's done.
Exactly!

While the rather ignorant Cpt. Sand Dune would probably rather burry his head in the sand and tell me I am "defending 'those silly kids'", we would be far better of dealing with the problem in a way we can control.

It seems to me that the industry is not doing anything about pilot education on dealing with the problem. At least not in GA, maybe airlines independently are.

Yeah, find and punish the guilty, but calling ignorant teens "mass murders" or "terrorist", and sentencing them as such, is not going to help anyone be any safer flying at night.

[Kharon]

Thing is, this ain't a new sport, anyone remember the hoon who had a speed boat on Botany Bay, used to stand off the runway (sans running lights), scream down to short final 34 and flash up a really powerful spotlight right into the cockpit, at 3 am after a long night it was not bloody funny. They eventually got him, but he was not some silly kid.



Then there was a little group out near Liverpool who would ring ATC or the Cops or someone else making statements like 'an aircraft went over a little while back and something, looks like a wheel has landed in the garden. They eventually got them, kids but of the older flavour.



I guess the question is when does a prank, with or without malice become dangerous. This rock throwing off road bridges thing has been killing and maiming folks since they invented the first bridge, lots of public outcry, press, examples made but it continues.



Perhaps, you can't legislate against intent, malice or lunacy.
Good Queen Bess said it best, "Do what you like, but don't startle the horses".



I like the horse whip idea though, but long before it became necessary after a crime.

[flyinkiwi]

Could the airline pilots association black list them? I know most of these idiots doing this sort of thing don't think about the consequences, but not being able to fly anywhere for 5 years would be a good punishment.