PPRuNe Forums - L@ser attacks on Aircraft

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Mindless or terrorist?

Terrorist no, just another moron.

Keep checking under your bed though.

ASBO should just about cover it along with a good shoeing down the cop-shp

Bollox to that-attempted murder. If i stormed a flight deck and shone a l@zer into pilots eye...id be down guantanamo by end of month..

Make him look into his own LASER :D

Uh no then he could get a place on Big Bruvva:ugh:

Sir George Cayley

ps Just thought, throw the book at him. CAP736 to be precise!

Precedent already set in South Australia is two years jail, and it is a felony.

What if l@zers are been seen shone into the cabin?

What actions would the two up front, like passengers to do if we become aware the aircraft is being illumniated by a l@zer from the ground?

DAL208 is right.
It's attempted murder.
Much like shoving a block of concrete off a motorway bridge through the windscreen of an oncoming car or lorry.
CJ

Why are these things still out in the public?

A nineteen-year-old can't posses a shoulder launched device can he? What's the difference with this laser?

Aren't they military spec green lasers? Aren't they designed to disable the vision of the enemy?

In Las Vegas in the 90's laser light shows would occasionally nail a crew and nothing was done to license or punish operators of these public hazards. This has been going on for a decade now.

How long is it until another dumb dumb tries this from the same town?

These lasers should be treated like illegal contraband and taken off the market imho.

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What actions would the two up front, like passenergers to do if we become aware the aircraft is being illumniated by a laser from the ground?

Don't look at the sodding thing. Shield the eyes.Report it to ATC. When we receive such a report, we phone the police (and warn following traffic), who take it very seriously. Unfortunately, unless there's a very good position report (unlikely unless you've stared down the beam and can somehow still actually see) and there's good help from the nearby public (usually willing, but usually don't notice lasers originating from nearby, as they're so directional) there's often not a great deal they can do.

[EDIT] Thought you asked "what actions should the two up front take." Just re-read the question.
My answer is probably still valid, but doesn't address your question, sorry. But I would still suggest not looking at it. These things, if strong enough, can damage the eyes.

I suppose he comes from a broken home, was abused by his father & was only doing it for a laugh.This unfortunately plus a brief provided by the taxpayer, will most likely get him off.

Yes it is attempted murder, cut & dried no questions, but we all know he will be sent home with a smack on the wrist.

Antone seen a photo of this scumbag?..... no, no let me guess.....

Shaved head, mouth breather, vacant look, IQ of around 55. Parents no prettier.

Incidents of lasers being shone at aircraft are very much on the increase. We were getting about one report per month until we raised the profile and then the reporting rate doubled. The reports are about 50:50 UK (our base) and Europe, so it is not just a British malaise.

Industry advice is as follows:
1. If you notice a laser, don’t look at it. It is very tempting, but it will increase the chance of eye injury.
2. Report it to ATC immediately. They can help pinpoint the location and report it to the police. This will also warn other nearby aircraft.
3. File an ASR. On CAA advice we are classifying all laser incidents as MORs so that the CAA can understand the extent of the problem and maybe take action nationally.
4. If any after-effects are felt, the crew member should seek specialist medical attention.

In the UK the police will probably be very proactive since they got a successful prosecution against a Muppet who shone a laser at the Manchester police helicopter.:ugh:

Since laser light has a specific wavelength, I wonder if anyone has thought of equipping police heli pilots with eye filters for the times they have to go hunt these idiots.

Trouble is, there's all sorts of laser pointers out there, all emitting light of different wavelengths. You'd need umpteen filters to counter them all, and many of the wideband filters also restrict passage of visible light too.

Death's too good for the b@$t@rds.

What exactly are these fecking laser thingies for? Do they perform some sort of useful function?

Or are they something we can order shops to stop selling and no-one would be particularly aggrieved by it?

I realise that they would still be available abroad, over the web etc, but it would be a start as I think most of these attacks are spur of the moment things rather than meticulously planned.

Anyone?

They are useful for teachers and lecturers for pointing to particular points on a display without having to lean in front of it: hence the name, laser pointers. Somehow I doubt this guy is a lecturer!

Luddite I know, but why not use an old fashioned pointer?! I'm sure the lecturers could live with it.

OK, so I'm not a pilot, but I do know a lot about Lasers.

The issue here is with the small diode lasers that are sold as laser pointers, and as alignment lasers to the construction industry. The law on these items is that they should all be below 1mW, and hence fall into safety Class 1.

Class 1 lasers are inherently safe - in other words there is no way you can damage you eyes, no matter how long you stare into the beam. Which is why they can be sold without restrictions.

However you can find higher power diode lasers on sale, with 5 or more mW, which pushes them into Class 2 or even 3a. These you do have to be careful of, as they can do damage if you stare into the beam. This is quite hard to do in practice as you tend to blink and look away as the light light hurts, long before it actually damages you eyes. Even laser light spreads out as it travels (the narrowest laser spot we can put on the moon is five times with width of the moon!), so the damage peters out in a few metres.

Every so often Trading Standards cracks down on the illegal sale of Class 2 and 3a lasers as laser pointers, but given the flood coming in from the far east, they are losing the battle. They are the people who you should be complaining to.

Class 4 lasers are the ultra high power ones used for cutting metal and professional lighting displays. You need a lot of training before you will even be sold one of these. :ok:

The main hazard to pilots from nighttime lasers is distraction and temporary blindness. It is basically impossible to cause permanent damage from the ground, with anything you can buy over the counter (legal or illegal). It's the temporary blindness that is the major hazard to navigation, and why the sales of illegally high powered laser pointers should be better policed.

S

They're also fairly extensively used in the building industry, for lining up things that matter. Floor joists, when re-piling, for instance.
These ones are probably a bit more powerful than the ones used by lecturers, at a guess.

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The main hazard to pilots from nighttime lasers is distraction and temporary blindness. It is basically impossible to cause permanent damage from the ground, with anything you can buy over the counter (legal or illegal). It's the temporary blindness that is the major hazard to navigation, and why the sales of illegally high powered laser pointers should be better policed.

Impossible? That's quite a Titanic statement you just made: "basically impossible." Did you consider the post USSR proliferation of overseas green surplus military lasers? When a crewmember is incapacitated with blindness sounds to me like much more than distraction or temporary blindness. How long is temporary? Here is all I could find on Wiki:

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Even the first laser was recognized as being potentially dangerous. Theodore Maiman characterized the first laser as having a power of one "Gillette"; as it could burn through one Gillette razor blade. Today, it is accepted that even low-power lasers with only a few milliwatts of output power can be hazardous to human eyesight, when the beam from such a laser hits the eye directly or after reflection from a shiny surface. At wavelengths which the cornea and the lens can focus well, the coherence and low divergence of laser light means that it can be focused by the eye into an extremely small spot on the retina, resulting in localized burning and permanent damage in seconds or even less time.
Lasers are usually labeled with a safety class number, which identifies how dangerous the laser is:
Class I/1 is inherently safe, usually because the light is contained in an enclosure, for example in cd players.
Class II/2 is safe during normal use; the blink reflex of the eye will prevent damage. Usually up to 1 mW power, for example laser pointers.
Class IIIa/3R lasers are usually up to 5 mW and involve a small risk of eye damage within the time of the blink reflex. Staring into such a beam for several seconds is likely to cause (minor) eye damage.
Class IIIb/3B can cause immediate severe eye damage upon exposure. Usually lasers up to 500 mW, such as those in cd and dvd burners.
Class IV/4 lasers can burn skin, and in some cases, even scattered light can cause eye and/or skin damage. Many industrial and scientific lasers are in this class.
The indicated powers are for visible-light, continuous-wave lasers. For pulsed lasers and invisible wavelengths, other power limits apply. People working with class 3B and class 4 lasers can protect their eyes with safety goggles which are designed to absorb light of a particular wavelength.
Certain infrared lasers with wavelengths beyond about 1.4 micrometres are often referred to as being "eye-safe". This is because the intrinsic molecular vibrations of water molecules very strongly absorb light in this part of the spectrum, and thus a laser beam at these wavelengths is attenuated so completely as it passes through the eye's cornea that no light remains to be focused by the lens onto the retina. The label "eye-safe" can be misleading, however, as it only applies to relatively low power continuous wave beams and any high power or Q-switched laser at these wavelengths can burn the cornea, causing severe eye damage.
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I say ban em' all; and go back to chalk lines and wooden pointer sticks.....