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L@ser attacks on Aircraft

Old 13th Mar 2012, 11:29
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caught in Belfast

BBC News - Three arrests after lasers aimed at aircraft

I hope they properly throw the book at them - none of that "caution" malarkey!

Police have arrested three people on suspicion of endangering aircraft on Monday.
Two 17-year-old youths were arrested in north Belfast after a laser was shone at an aircraft from the Ballysillan playing fields at about 20:45 GMT.
In a separate incident a male, whose age has not been released, was arrested after a laser was shone at an aircraft at Glenavy, County Antrim, at 23:30 GMT.
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Old 15th Mar 2012, 16:12
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See two yobs who did it to an Air ambulance have got away with it. The British court system stinks yet again!!

Yobs who shone laser pen in air ambulance pilot¿s eyes stopping him taking dying man to hospital walk free from court | Mail Online
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Old 15th Mar 2012, 16:50
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Originally Posted by lasernigel
See two yobs who did it to an Air ambulance have got away with it. The British court system stinks yet again!!

Yobs who shone laser pen in air ambulance pilot¿s eyes stopping him taking dying man to hospital walk free from court | Mail Online
Words fail me. Especially after the judge's comments of it not being serious.
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Old 16th Mar 2012, 00:37
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I am more than willing as a laser engineer with over 30 yrs of working on them, to start off an e-petition that makes it an offence under law to knowingly point a laser at any form of air transport. Further and I know some who have already been on this thread and think it is normal to be able to own a laser with a power > 3 mW, to have lasers licensed in the UK with a maximum power level > 3mW.
Would I have support that is the question to all you pilots and people who have a conscience?
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Old 16th Mar 2012, 08:31
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am more than willing as a laser engineer with over 30 yrs of working on them, to start off an e-petition that makes it an offence under law to knowingly point a laser at any form of air transport.
I thought it already was an offence.
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Old 16th Mar 2012, 09:10
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It was unlikely the helicopter would have saved the man who had suffered a cardiac arrest, the ambulance service said.
Ah, so that makes it OK. Good to know.

Magistrate Felicity Dowell told them: ..........

'I am sure that you did not do it to make the helicopter crash but it would have had that effect.

'You are very lucky it wasn’t very serious. One of you plays rugby - imagine if you were lying on the field with a broken leg waiting for the air ambulance and someone did the same thing.'
I would ask Magistrate Felicity Dowell how she would have reacted had the person concerned been one of her family members.

Banning these things from sale is not the answer, those who want them will always be able to obtain them and there must be thousands around anyway - I have at least 6 in a drawer at home which I used as pointers during presentations. The solution is exercising and publicising severe sentences on people like these thugs.
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Old 16th Mar 2012, 12:07
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I'm no pilot - just humble SLF with some very peripheral involvement with aviation. I do know something about the law however and I humbly submit that the offence within the UK is fully covered by Article 222 of the Air Navigation Order, 2009, which states that it is an offence to "direct or shine any light at any aircraft in flight so as to dazzle or distract the pilot of the aircraft". It was enacted I believe specifically to tackle the growing menace of laser attacks on aircraft. A similar law has recently been enacted in the U.S.A. to make it a federal offence to commit such an act.

So, the problem isn't so much the lack of legal muscle, as magistrates and judges simply not taking the offence sufficiently seriously when sentencing. I would fully support any petition or other action, however I think the appropriate target in the UK should be the Home Office with the objective of encouraging clearer guidelines and stricter sentencing to the Courts.
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Old 26th Mar 2012, 12:54
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I see as part of Olympic interception procedures
http://www.rin.org.uk/Uploadedpdfs/I...s/1220-web.pdf
a military helicopter can aim a laser at an intercepted aircraft. Who did the risk assessment on this? Is there not a major danger of blinding the pilot, especially as this will presumably be used only at night (and if a helicopter can intercept, presumably it will be a single pilot aircraft)?
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Old 26th Mar 2012, 14:28
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.

...the problem isn't so much the lack of legal muscle...
Its also the fact we have the sea shepherd idiots glorifying laser muppetry by going around pointing lazers at ocean going ships. The last laser attack...


"...delivering a high-power laser beam toward the YS2 and YS3. The laser delivering lasted for about 50 minutes..."


http://www.icrwhale.org/pdf/120306ReleaseENG.pdf




.
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Old 26th Mar 2012, 14:56
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This is really very worrying.
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Old 27th Mar 2012, 01:16
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Ships killing whales and lying through their teeth that it is 'research' hardly in the same category as aviation.
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Old 28th Mar 2012, 05:11
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A green laser was shone at an incoming flight last evening in OMDB. The incident was reported to DXB tower but I don't know if it was acted upon.

Last year, we had a helicopter flying at treetop height over Mirdif (a suburb in Dubai right on the approach line to rwy 30L and 30R) looking for the scrotes....

Happens quite a bit in Dubai too apparently....!
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Old 2nd Apr 2012, 18:04
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SEN

Ezy have started scheduled flights from SEN today, just heard last nights inbound positioning flight was subjected to some Green Lasers when on finals.

J
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Old 20th Apr 2012, 13:08
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Some good news for the people at the pointy end.

BBC News - Christopher Paton jailed over l@ser pen attack on police helicopter
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Old 20th Apr 2012, 13:10
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jailed

BBC News - Christopher Paton jailed over laser pen attack on police helicopter

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, Paton was jailed for nine months after admitting endangering the helicopter.
Mind you - surely 1year 7 months isn't normal before something has gone through court and someone is sentenced?
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Old 22nd Apr 2012, 03:53
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Earlier this week, I was flying GIG-GRU as SLF on an American carrier, before continuing to the US. We took off from RWY 10 and were climbing RWY HDG more or less - I wasn't paying much attention, so we could have turned left at 500' to 063 HDG per one of the SIDs - before turning right to head SW/W towards GRU.

Before said turn, when we were across the bay overflying São Gonçalo with the Rio-Niterói bridge on our starboard side, I saw a flash by my window. When I looked down, I was hit in the eyes by a green laser which was clearly tracking us from a position on the ground between the #2 engine and the fuselage. It caused immediate pain, and a throbbing sensation and headache that lasted throughout the night.

When we landed at GRU, I asked to talk to the flight crew to confirm what I had experienced. Only one of them had seen it, but he said the cockpit hadn't been hit directly - which corroborated my observation of the laser's relative position to us. Then, both the Captain and F/O stated firmly that this happens all the time around GIG and GRU, though it seems to be more prevalent around the latter. They said they've filed numerous reports, but nobody seems interested in doing anything about it, which is a disgrace and an embarrassment in itself.

If authorities don't listen to professional pilots, I doubt they'll listen to an SPL flying as SLF. In any case, I'm doing my part and filing an Operational Safety Confidential Report with Cenipa (Cenipa-27-Reporte Confidencial para Segurança Operacional-RCSO). If there's anything else I can do, I'm all ears.
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Old 23rd Apr 2012, 06:01
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It may be of interest for people to know, Paton was only nicked with a 40mW laser. So the hit will be of course be to the tax payer to bang him up for some time.

A Flashing Success | Letters to Earth

With the current insatiable "mine's bigger than yours" craze, people claim to have hit the space station at 200 miles with ....yes believe it or not, ...

...these handheld 1W lasers are available for sale and orderable via the internet.
One chap claims to be able to build up to 2.4W units...

"Survival Lasers sells a 1.25 watt laser for under $150 here on the forum. You can find home built 1.5-2.0 watt lasers for under $200 easily"


Currently costing a mere 180£ below, it's only a matter of time before some nutter points one at an a/c or even uses it off a motorway bridge or something!

Blue Laser Pointer 1 Watt | S3 Arctic | Spyder III | Wicked Lasers

S3 Arctic 1 Watt Laser Review | GadgetReview

Laserglow Technologies - Handheld Lasers, Alignment Lasers and Lab / OEM Lasers

There are loads of outfits selling them.

Time to take some preventive action methinks.

FYI:-
The 200mW of 532nM green appears 6x as bright as 1 watt of 445nM blue laser.

I loved the disclaimer btw:-

"Laser pointers are a lot of fun, provided you don’t point it in an eye or try to hit a overflying airplane. But hitting the International Space Station is 100% OK, provided you communicate your intentions to an astronaut"

This little b can do 300mW.

ANTICIPATION, Forewarned is forearmed.

Last edited by up_down_n_out; 23rd Apr 2012 at 14:32.
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Old 24th Apr 2012, 05:54
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Speaking of l@ser attacks on aircraft....the PRK rocket that broke up prior to entering orbit after launch was possibly destroyed by the 747-mounted Airborne L@ser that was supposedly "retired to the boneyard" in February, but was actually featured in several photos on airliners.net on or about March 12 in landing/taxiing in Iwakuni, Japan. These photos have since been removed.......
interesting...
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Old 24th Apr 2012, 08:26
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Heard on the radio yesterday about a police helicopter here (Ingolstadt) searching in for a missing child, being forced to land after pilot was affected by a laser beam in his eyes, culprit was a 13 year old child. Heard the chopper, but thought it was just a police night training excercise.....I live a short distance from the Danube, by a park, sometimes used by training flights.
No mention of the missing child being found. But this surely is a case of putting lives in danger.

Last edited by ArthurR; 24th Apr 2012 at 10:54. Reason: Spelling
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Old 5th Jun 2012, 15:47
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Lasers

It's unsafe to point

May 30th 2012, 17:31 by A.H. | TORONTO



CANADIANS seem to love playing with lasers, but rather than tease cats for hours on end, more than a few are pointing them at aeroplanes and causing serious safety issues. The number of aircraft getting "hit" with lasers jumped 25% to 229 last year and there have already been more than 100 incidents this year, reports Transport Canada. This is despite the fact that anyone convicted of pointing a laser into an aircraft cockpit could get up to a C$100,000 ($98,000) fine and/or up to five years in prison under the Aeronautics Act.
At Calgary airport alone dozens of pilots report being temporarily blinded. "We do tend to see it more in the warmer months," said a WestJet Airlines spokesman. "It's stupid, it's dangerous." Even police helicopters have been hit. "Some will even shine it at a plane and then shine it at us," said one policewoman. "It really startles you... some of these criminals are not the smartest."
That's putting it mildly. Lasers are distracting, but like a camera flash they can also cause temporary blindness, and the glare can prevent a pilot from seeing past the light, all of which could lead to an accident. Concern about the longer-lasting damage they can do to the eyes has led Calgary-based WestJet to contract a local ophthalmologist to examine pilots who have been hit.
Laser-pointing is also a growing problem in the United States, where the number of such incidents rose from 2,836 in 2010 to 3,592 in 2011. As a result Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigators are to "pursue the toughest penalties" against the people involved. Those convicted of shining lasers at planes can now get up to five years behind bars and $250,000 in fines under a law enacted in February. That’s a big jump from the maximum penalty of $11,000 for one laser strike the FAA announced last year.
One Florida man earlier this month pleaded guilty to aiming a green laser beam on at least 23 occasions at planes using Orlando airport. He said he suffered from severe anxiety because of jet noise. Here's hoping that any jail he is sent to is not on a flight path.
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