Wikiposts
Search
Safety, CRM, QA & Emergency Response Planning A wide ranging forum for issues facing Aviation Professionals and Academics

L@ser attacks on Aircraft

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old 29th Oct 2009, 10:10
  #381 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: At the whim of crewing
Posts: 132
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
To be honest, the police are getting much better on it now - there was no disbelief when we reported that we were passing through 8000 feet when one caught us.
assymetricdrift is offline  
Old 29th Oct 2009, 11:04
  #382 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: UK
Posts: 33
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
"Unluckily for the twt who was doing it - the guy flying our aircraft lives locally and knew exactly what area the beam was coming from"

Yes "the park behind the Audi garage" was a bit specific luckily said tw@t missed us as we went around the hold between the two incidents mentioned.
collectivefriction is offline  
Old 3rd Nov 2009, 19:07
  #383 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Paris, France
Posts: 350
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
2.5 years of prison

A California man has been sentenced to 2.5 years of prison for shining a l@ser at two jets at John Wayne Airport:

Calif. Man Gets Prison for Aiming Laser at Planes - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

Federal prisons do not grant parole in the U.S.
AnthonyGA is offline  
Old 17th Nov 2009, 21:01
  #384 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 1,546
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Laser yob caught & pleaded guilty

A day or two ago, BBC reported that a police helicopter flying over Donnington Bridge, Oxford, some time ago,was blinded by a laser pen wielded by a 20 year old male. The crew managed to pinpoint the source, and nab the youth, who appeared in court a few days ago, and said he hadn't intended any harm.

The broadcast of the incident was quite frightening, so intense was the beam. Amazing they were able to find the culprit. It is probably impossible to regulate the sale of such items.....

I havn't been able to discover whether or not this news has been reported on pprune, so pass it on herewith.
mary meagher is offline  
Old 21st Nov 2009, 10:34
  #385 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: The sky mainly
Posts: 352
Received 6 Likes on 5 Posts
Are there different levels of intensity? I was on a scheduled flight to france last year and on the approach someone shined a laser at the aircraft. At one point I was looking straight down the beam and must admit that it wasn't that bad. It didn't leave me feeling dizzy or blind.
Sky Sports is offline  
Old 21st Nov 2009, 10:57
  #386 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: UK
Posts: 816
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Are there different levels of intensity?
Well, yes! Some laser read your barcodes at the supermarket checkout, and some destroy ICBMs re-entering the atmosphere at hundreds of miles range. There are a few in between as well.
Torque Tonight is offline  
Old 21st Nov 2009, 11:14
  #387 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Cambridge
Posts: 17
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
There are indeed different levels of power and thus intensity.
I had green laser pointed at me last week while I was on 8nm final and this was quite powerful.
Have a look at this link

Green Laser,Laser Beam Optics,Laser Safety Glasses : Dragon Lasers

and this movie from youtube

YouTube - Hulk Ultra 400mW high power green laser

I'm sure these could some serious damage.

Be careful.

Lorel
lorel is offline  
Old 21st Nov 2009, 11:47
  #388 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Inside
Posts: 285
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
The effects of laser illumination of aircraft - IFALPA medical breafing leaflet.
One Outsider is offline  
Old 25th Nov 2009, 04:31
  #389 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: above it all
Posts: 367
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Some 3000 cases in 5 years, 700 in 2008, 1200 already this year in the States, according to this article. One captured on video:

Laser Pointers Posing Frightening Risk To Pilots - News Story - KTVU San Francisco
Finn47 is offline  
Old 25th Nov 2009, 12:17
  #390 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Esher, Surrey
Posts: 466
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Teenager arrested over laser pen

BBC News - Teenager arrested over laser pen
beamender99 is offline  
Old 25th Nov 2009, 19:33
  #391 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Maidstone
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Throw away the key I say. idiots who do this sort of thing have no clue the danger they cause.
Larryishappy is offline  
Old 25th Nov 2009, 19:54
  #392 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 1,546
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
light aircraft and helicopters also targets

According to a recent light aircraft safety data report by the CAA, between 14/9 and 21/10 of this year, there were 9 fixed wing and 7 helicopters targeted with the nasty green ray.

Fixed wing:
Coventry, 3 incidents. Manchester 2. Leeds Bradford and Northampton 1,
Fareham and Bournemouth 1 each, but they caught the perps.

Helis,
Franklin, an Agusta. Carniforth and Lake District, both Sikorsky S76.
But when they took on the Bolkow 117, over Tottenham, Rainham, Wood Green and an unspecified location on 17/9, ALL the perps were apprehended.

Clearly the Bolkow has special powers, perhaps they could help seek out the idiots pestering larger aircraft?
mary meagher is offline  
Old 25th Nov 2009, 21:06
  #393 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: USA
Age: 66
Posts: 2,183
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Clearly the Bolkow has special powers, perhaps they could help seek out the idiots pestering larger aircraft?

What do the Met fly?
eastern wiseguy is offline  
Old 25th Nov 2009, 22:42
  #394 (permalink)  
Moderator
 
Join Date: Apr 1998
Location: err, *******, we have a problem
Age: 58
Posts: 1,335
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I've lost count of the number of times I've been targeted, (basically because I have trouble counting beyond 5... 4 times I think it is,) and indeed was the Captain on one of the major incidents referred to on this thread about 18 months ago. On the most recent incident I was targeted twice on the same approach into Heathrow.

Does the Bolkow have special powers? I thought of that straight-off as a glib statement but thought it through, and it is actually a serious point. Special powers? I don't know, but one of the luxuries it DOES have (over and above the IR cameras) is time; time to hang around and fine-tune the location of the idiot perps and that coupled with the local knowledge of the crew perhaps DOES add up to being a special power. But then all Police Helicopters will have the same; perhaps most of them happen to be Bolkows.

Time is a luxury those of us in commercial airliners do not have, neither is the willingness necessarily to risk more damage by staring down the eye of the green shaft. However, one of my copilots was recently targeted into London as well, and I flew with him not long after the event He managed to nail the location down to one of two houses, and apparently the police were very impressed with that. When they asked him how he'd managed that, the answer was simple; he'd not too long ago been flying close air support in Harriers, and was well up to speed on target-spotting, and armed with that experience and an OS map was able to give them some serious gen. Don't know the outcome yet, but it inspired me so last time I was targeted I took a good note of the area, DME's, radials etc. and got onto Google Earth as soon as I could, appending my rough and very raw data to the ASR.

Best I could do was about a block at best, maybe two. But it might be worth bearing in mind if it happens to you.

Squid
Sick Squid is offline  
Old 2nd Dec 2009, 11:11
  #395 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: London
Posts: 15
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Does the Bolkow have special powers?

No but I believe it has a very accurate camera/map slaving system accurate down to individual house numbers and multiple sensor recording capabilities. Very quick and very efficient
Blind Pugh is offline  
Old 6th Dec 2009, 21:20
  #396 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Devon, England
Posts: 249
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I hate to disillusionise you guys but just google on 'powerful laser pointers for sale', and you will be horrified at those available. Some claimed to be with 100 mile range? What for?
manrow is offline  
Old 8th Dec 2009, 22:09
  #397 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Somewhere in Italy
Posts: 67
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Green laser pointing a/c

Hello everybody

We're having a strange problem here in Italy.

Almost everyday there's someone pointing a/c on final and on the initial climb with a green laser. A lot of pilots complain about this light, as it could be dangerous during one of the most difficul phase of flight.

We've sent dozens of reports, called airport police, but it seems that nobody is able to find and kick those funny guys.

Is this just an italian problem? Did you have any kind of similar experience?
seagull87 is offline  
Old 8th Dec 2009, 22:11
  #398 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Somewhere in Italy
Posts: 67
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
sorry, i didn't see there's another thread about...
seagull87 is offline  
Old 8th Dec 2009, 22:49
  #399 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Columbus OH, USA
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Here, the police used their helicopter to chase down suspects pointing lasers at aircraft. However it helped that the idiots who were doing it started pointing the laser AT the police helicopter.
jpclowes is offline  
Old 10th Dec 2009, 21:35
  #400 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 1,546
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Seagull87, do the Italian police have helicopters? See my previous post 393 and the reply 396. If your local airport has a serious problem, its time to send for the local copper chopper.
mary meagher is offline  


Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.