Teen charged with pointing laser at helicopter

[Managers Perspective]

Will be an interesting test case in QLD.

I hope they throw the book at him!

M.P.


A 17-YEAR-OLD boy who allegedly pointed a laser beam at an emergency services rescue helicopter has become the first Queenslander to be charged over such an offence.

Police Minister Neil Roberts said the boy was accused of pointing a high intensity laser beam at the helicopter while it was trying to land at the Mareeba Hospital helipad, in north Queensland, early this morning.

He said while the chopper landed safely it could have caused trouble.

"He was charged with endangering the safe use of a vehicle by directing a beam of light from a laser," Mr Roberts said.

"He is the first person in Queensland to be charged under legislation introduced last year and updated in May to curb this dangerous practice."

The boy is due to appear in the Mareeba Magistrates Court on July 13.

[psycho joe]

They should have just Tasered the guy 28 times and be done with it!

[blackbandit]

Do you think anything will actually happen to the kid? I mean this is Australia. I would be surprised if he even receives a record from it.

Rotan sounds very appropriate in this case.

[bushy]

Did he know it was dangerous before /when he did it?
I think a public education program is required. People may be breaking a law they do not know about.

[satos]

Throw the book at him!

[Hempy]

Bushy,

Did he know it was dangerous before /when he did it?Seriously? He pointed a laser at the cockpit of a helicopter as it was on final. What do you think his intentions were? Do you think he thought "This is a nice little laser thingy I've got here, hmmm what could I use it for? Hey, there's a helicopter, it'd be cool to see what would happen if I shine my laser directly into the pilots eyes! I'm sure nothing bad could happen, and I'm sure that I'm doing nothing wrong or that this could in any way be considered illegal, after all I've never heard of such a similar thing like this ever happening before, in fact this is probably a first and I'm a genius for inventing this technique" ? :ugh::ugh::ugh:

edit: can anyone tell me why laser, although typed with an a, comes out on pprune with an @ in it?

[peuce]

Maybe so 11 year old kids won't google it !

[Senior Pilot]

can anyone tell me why l@ser, although typed with an a, comes out on PPRuNe with an @ in it?

That is so the Google adverts on this page won't pick it up, and flood us Mods with complaints about adverts for the type of lasers that the thread is inevitably complaining about :p

[Pinky the pilot]

Did he know it was dangerous before /when he did it?


Bushy; Sitting on my desk in a stubby cooler that I use as a pen holder is a $4.50 combination laser pointer/torch which, according to the sticker on it was made in China. The body of the whole thing is about the thickness of an AA battery but about one and a half times longer.

The sticker on the body of the 'instrument' quite clearly states the warning that aiming it at someone's eyes is to be 'avoided.' Below that warning is a very prominent red coloured DANGER label with a repeated notice that exposure to eyes is to be avoided.

I would think that all such laser instruments would have similar warning stickers attached. If any person chooses to disregard these warnings then let the full force of the law descend upon them!

[werbil]

rant

I'm not sure who is more stupid - this kids that use the pointers or some of the responders to this post.

Of the numerous incidents, I would expect most of the kids are trying to see if they can actually hit a moving target with the pointer, and if it will show up at a distance. I doubt very much they'd even consider that it may shine it in the pilots eyes.

The class of laser (intensity) will determine what distance it is hazardous to the eyes. With the survey aircraft that is running around the traps at the moment the 'safe' distance is 700 feet (213 metres) as per notam Internet Briefing Service (http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/brief/html.asp?/cgi-bin/avreq?n1=YBBB+C1426/09). I'd be extremely surprised if these toy laser pointers would be anywhere near as powerful as those in the survey aircraft.

Aircraft POH's (and placards) are full of very specific warnings including many that are basic common sense. How can you expect a 17YO kid to work out that pointing a laser at an aircraft may result in it 'shining directly into the pilots eyes' when a professional pilot has to be told that if you don't do fuel drains the engine may stop and you may 'suffer serious bodily injury or death'?

/rant

On the same token, I hope that the offense is strict liability and the kid gets the book thrown at him. With a bit of luck the news story will stop a few more :mad:wits that think it might be fun.

[Old 'Un]

You would be surprised just how far a $10 hand-held laser will go under good conditions.

Now, if said yoof has been saving his pennies (awright, cents), it is possible to buy an industrial laser via the internet for quite a reasonable sum. A workmate has one that I wouldn't want to be looking down the business end of when it was switched on, which he acquired on the 'net.

The big thing here is that common sense seems to be even further in decline than it was even 5 years ago. Unless there's a tag on something warning the user not to do something or to observe a certain safety procedure, the excuse is "nobody told me...". We have wrapped our (younger) society in cotton wool for so long now that common sense is almost extinct.

17 years old. In many jurisdictions, old enough to drive, old enough to get married, old enough to sign a contract, blah, blah blah. Should be old enough to know better. If he was mine, my response would be: you're old enough to suffer the consequences of your action.

There comes a time when parents have to let their offspring answer to the community for their misdemeanours.

Le Vieux