I've had nothing to do with it, but for those able to watch BBC TV tomorrow morning (that is AM Z Tuesday 13 October), I have a heads up that BBC Breakfast TV is doing a feature on the increasing threat to passenger aircraft of ground based l@ser sources.
I've no idea if the feature will be good, bad, or ugly - but might be worth a glance.
If they would just stop selling these l@sers, the problem would be out of the world... I was lazed last year. After the incident our chief pilot told us that if it ever happened again, make sure the source is located i.e. look at the l@ser.
My advice is to duck under the glareshield. I had "gravel" in my left eye for 3 days after the incident, not very pleasant. Quite scary considering implicatons on the next medical exam...
I needed a l@ser pointer the other day (for completely legitimate purposes in a presentation given in the UK). I asked the people I was working with where I could buy one and was told you couldn't buy them legally .... except in 'joke' shops, which seems ridiculous. I was directed to a place where they had quite a selection, some looked fairly powerful.
The reality though is that banning the sale of such things won't help, it will simply drive the suppliers underground. Proper detection and punishment of abusers is the answer.
I don't doubt for one minute that there are many l@sers that will damage eyesight, but the biggest hazard presented by l@sers is distraction. I have been "tagged" many times in all cases to date have been able to duck behind the glareshield (how appropriate) to preserve my vision. In each case I have been able to let the automatics do the flying and there has been no detrimental outcome. But I'm glad that I didn't have any technical and/or weather problems - the additional distraction may have been an interference too far.
The message that really needs to be sent out is that if the little gits who tag aircraft with l@sers get caught, they will be picking up soap in the showers at one of HM's less pleasureable establishments for a few months. We don't need any additional laws, just enforcement of the current ones.
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