Laser beams directed at planes
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 1,219
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Laser beams directed at planes
Laser beams directed at planes
From: AAP
February 23, 2006
PEOPLE pointing lasers at aircraft when they are trying to land are creating an unnecessary risk at the most critical time of a flight, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said today.
Anyone caught doing it would face severe penalties, CASA said.
CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said in the past year pilots had reported more than a dozen incidents where industrial strength lasers had been directed at the cockpits of planes as they were about to land.
The incidents included two in Melbourne, two in Sydney, three in Maroochydore and several others at regional airports.
"We've got no evidence to suggest it's anything more than people, for some unknown reason, thinking it's a fun thing to do to use industrial strength lasers to point at planes when they're trying to land," he said.
The practice created a distraction for busy pilots on landing.
"It is a distraction. It is an added risk which we don't need to have.
"Therefore we take a very dim view of it.
"If anybody is ever caught they can expect to be treated harshly."
Mr Gibson said there was a patch of incidents at Maroochydore airport in Queensland.
"It was done at a certain time from a certain area and police are really narrowing it down to a particular block of flats," he said.
"Clearly, somebody in Maroochydore was doing it in quite a planned way."
He said there had been incidents in the United States where people had been caught and jailed over similar actions
From: AAP
February 23, 2006
PEOPLE pointing lasers at aircraft when they are trying to land are creating an unnecessary risk at the most critical time of a flight, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said today.
Anyone caught doing it would face severe penalties, CASA said.
CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said in the past year pilots had reported more than a dozen incidents where industrial strength lasers had been directed at the cockpits of planes as they were about to land.
The incidents included two in Melbourne, two in Sydney, three in Maroochydore and several others at regional airports.
"We've got no evidence to suggest it's anything more than people, for some unknown reason, thinking it's a fun thing to do to use industrial strength lasers to point at planes when they're trying to land," he said.
The practice created a distraction for busy pilots on landing.
"It is a distraction. It is an added risk which we don't need to have.
"Therefore we take a very dim view of it.
"If anybody is ever caught they can expect to be treated harshly."
Mr Gibson said there was a patch of incidents at Maroochydore airport in Queensland.
"It was done at a certain time from a certain area and police are really narrowing it down to a particular block of flats," he said.
"Clearly, somebody in Maroochydore was doing it in quite a planned way."
He said there had been incidents in the United States where people had been caught and jailed over similar actions
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: sometimes here usual out there!
Posts: 158
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Sounds like a stupid thing to do! If they catch those people the should be chemically castrated to stop them infecting the world.
A couple of questions, no guessing please. What law or reg are they breaking.
I have been looking for a law of reg that says it is illegal to jeopardise the safety of an aircraft, which I am sure it is.
A couple of questions, no guessing please. What law or reg are they breaking.
I have been looking for a law of reg that says it is illegal to jeopardise the safety of an aircraft, which I am sure it is.
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Australia
Posts: 81
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by TurboOtter
Sounds like a stupid thing to do! If they catch those people the should be chemically castrated to stop them infecting the world.
A couple of questions, no guessing please. What law or reg are they breaking.
I have been looking for a law of reg that says it is illegal to jeopardise the safety of an aircraft, which I am sure it is.
A couple of questions, no guessing please. What law or reg are they breaking.
I have been looking for a law of reg that says it is illegal to jeopardise the safety of an aircraft, which I am sure it is.
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Sydney
Posts: 60
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Around mid last year I was on decent into Sydney from the north (had just passed Newcastle around F160) and I had the cockpit fill up with an intense green light beam, which I quickly identified as a ground based light source. Reported it immediately to ATC but received a VERY casual acknowledgement with no further information requested. Report filed.
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: australia
Posts: 132
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The problem with the green lasers is that they are generally more powerful than the red. They are often 20-50mW, class 3 lasers - that is bad. Red lasers are generally only 1 mW and are class 1 - that is ok except you never actually know.
Anyone one directs a laser at you can be considered to be engaging you - not in the marital sense.
I don't know what the regs say - but unlawful interference, assault or some such seems appropriate.
Anyone one directs a laser at you can be considered to be engaging you - not in the marital sense.
I don't know what the regs say - but unlawful interference, assault or some such seems appropriate.
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: inner suburbia
Posts: 370
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
At least with the red and green ones you know that it's probably some braindead twit having a play with you.
It's the invisible infra-red and ultraviolet lasers that would be a bigger problem.
Hmm., Maybe there's a niche market for the industrial PPE people to produce a set of stylish safety glasses that keep out the nasty laser stuff at night.
Postscript. There already is quite a range of PPE laser safety glasses (stylish and expensive), but as GriffinBlack says in next post, they tend to be specific to particular wavelengths.
So whilst you can get specs that'll attentuate the IR and UV they'll then let in all the visible stuff., and if you attenuate some of the visible wavelengths you end-up with coloured lenses that'll affect in-cockpit colour perception.
It's the invisible infra-red and ultraviolet lasers that would be a bigger problem.
Hmm., Maybe there's a niche market for the industrial PPE people to produce a set of stylish safety glasses that keep out the nasty laser stuff at night.
Postscript. There already is quite a range of PPE laser safety glasses (stylish and expensive), but as GriffinBlack says in next post, they tend to be specific to particular wavelengths.
So whilst you can get specs that'll attentuate the IR and UV they'll then let in all the visible stuff., and if you attenuate some of the visible wavelengths you end-up with coloured lenses that'll affect in-cockpit colour perception.
Last edited by Biggles_in_Oz; 25th Feb 2006 at 03:09. Reason: should have done research
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: australia
Posts: 132
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The problem with getting safety glasses is that it is wavelength specific. In other words you need to decide on what type of laser you wish to protect yourself from.
The non visable lasers are also harder to get - they tend to have commercial uses. The liklihood of an idiot getting a non visable laser and deciding to dazzle passing acft is pretty low.
The non visable lasers are also harder to get - they tend to have commercial uses. The liklihood of an idiot getting a non visable laser and deciding to dazzle passing acft is pretty low.
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Canberra Australia
Posts: 1,300
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
griffinblack
How do you know you are being hit with a non-visible laser?
Does anyone know the threshhold power/range to temporary or permanent eye injury?
Some serious countermeasures please.
How do you know you are being hit with a non-visible laser?
Does anyone know the threshhold power/range to temporary or permanent eye injury?
Some serious countermeasures please.
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: australia
Posts: 132
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Milt,
Without getting too technical, it’s not as simple as providing a range versus power formula to determine if a laser is “eye safe”. The boffins call it Nominal Occular Hazard Distance (NOHD). That’s because you have a bunch of other variable such as beam divergence, atmospheric conditions etc.
How do you know if you are getting dazzled with a non visible laser? We are told that you “see” just that – a dazzle. A non visible laser damages your optic nerve or may indeed boil your vitreous fluid – amongst other nasty things. This generally creates some sort of visible sensation – a dazzle. You will/may suffer vision problem after the fact – in other words not necessarily instantaneous problems but vision problems a little while latter – spots, dazzle, headaches, blindness.
I hope I didn’t sound like a university professor.
Without getting too technical, it’s not as simple as providing a range versus power formula to determine if a laser is “eye safe”. The boffins call it Nominal Occular Hazard Distance (NOHD). That’s because you have a bunch of other variable such as beam divergence, atmospheric conditions etc.
How do you know if you are getting dazzled with a non visible laser? We are told that you “see” just that – a dazzle. A non visible laser damages your optic nerve or may indeed boil your vitreous fluid – amongst other nasty things. This generally creates some sort of visible sensation – a dazzle. You will/may suffer vision problem after the fact – in other words not necessarily instantaneous problems but vision problems a little while latter – spots, dazzle, headaches, blindness.
I hope I didn’t sound like a university professor.
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Sydney & Asia
Posts: 532
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Sounds like the work of terrorists to me. Maybe they have found a new way of crashing airplanes. Next thing you know, they might fire a laser guided missile on the aircraft using this laser beam as guidance. Just wondering if maybe they should report this to AFP.
D6
D6
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Planet Plazbot
Posts: 74
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by TurboOtter
Sounds like a stupid thing to do! If they catch those people the should be chemically castrated to stop them infecting the world.
A couple of questions, no guessing please. What law or reg are they breaking.
I have been looking for a law of reg that says it is illegal to jeopardise the safety of an aircraft, which I am sure it is.
A couple of questions, no guessing please. What law or reg are they breaking.
I have been looking for a law of reg that says it is illegal to jeopardise the safety of an aircraft, which I am sure it is.
It would be at least common assault. Assault in Qld is ..blah blah... liquid, sound, light...blah blah (Thanks Crim Law 101!)
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: A little world of my own - Planet Spandit
Posts: 510
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Having been hit by a stray laser beam whilst driving (I believe it was from a nightclub in Stuttgart), it's a pretty violent and frightening sensation - like being smacked hard in the face. Wouldn't like it to happen whilst flying, although I think we were hit by one going into PMI - another nightclub display...
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Australia
Age: 54
Posts: 253
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yeah lasers aren't the only problem now, theres donkeys at a few counrty strips who like directing high powered torches at you on short final at night... there really are some brainless people out there...
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 1,219
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I've been doing night circuits out at a dirt strip and had a roo shooter spot us with his high powered light. I made mention of it and the other pilot said
"I don't mind too much.. so long as the rifle isn't pointed where the light is!"
"I don't mind too much.. so long as the rifle isn't pointed where the light is!"
Last edited by Pass-A-Frozo; 26th Feb 2006 at 07:26.