pointing lasers at aircraft

[Mike]

Guys, check out this article from AOPA. Must be a new sport for dumb kids. We never did that when we were kids....
I am glad they got caught!

Three arrested in Buffalo for pointing laser at aircraft
Three men in Buffalo, N.Y., face felony criminal charges for pointing a green laser at a FedEx airliner and a local sheriff's helicopter multiple times on Thursday. The Erie County Sheriff's helicopter was hit with the laser while investigating the incident involving the FedEx airliner, and officials were then able to pinpoint the laser's location and make the arrests. One official compared the laser light to a lightning strike, noting that a direct hit into the eyes could be blinding.

[Oddball]

A man was charged by the CAA for pointing lazer pens at aircraft aproaching Edinburgh airport last year I think it was.

[mtnman]

both our sons are cops...pointing a laser at anyone, given the widespread use of laser gun sights, will get them very paranoid and exercised. 

[4X-NTY]

Are we talking about the kind that burns or the kind that don't? I know that the kind that doesn't burn and in green color is used here in civil aviation to mark the pilot that he is OK to land during a lost-radio-contact procedure,the army use green smoke grenades.

[mtnman]

my boys are talking about the red ones that are commonly used, including by police, as sighting mechanisms for firearms.

[G-man]

Are we talking about the kind that burns or the kind that don't? I know that the kind that doesn't burn and in green color is used here in civil aviation to mark the pilot that he is OK to land during a lost-radio-contact procedure,the army use green smoke grenades.

Those are lights at airports---they are specially designed for that purpose.

When I flew in the bay area, we occasionally got lit up at night by people shining spot lights at us---we would always call ground units and have them arrested under CA penal code section 248.

Any person who, with the intent to interfere with the operation of  an aircraft, willfully shines a light or other bright device, of an intensity capable of impairing the operation of  an aircraft, at  an aircraft, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both that fine and iprisonment.

There is also a federal code that can be applied that will result in stiffer penalties.

[mtnman]

Tuesday, November 03, 2009 


AP LOS ANGELES —  A Southern California man who aimed a laser beam at two airliners as they approached an airport has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for disrupting the flights.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles says Dana Christian Welch of Orange, who was sentenced Monday, was the first person in the U.S. to be convicted at trial of interfering with pilots by aiming lasers at their planes.

Authorities say the 37-year-old aimed a handheld laser at two Boeing jets as the passenger planes were about to land at John Wayne Airport on the night of May 21, 2008.

The laser beam struck one pilot in the eye, causing "flash blindness," and interfered with pilots' ability to land the other plane.

 

[Chopper Doc]

And I hope the courts continue to take a properly hard line with idiots who would interfere with a pilot, especially at a critical phase of flight like landing.

I mean, WTF is going through somebody's mind when they look at the warning on the laser that reads something like, "Do not point at your eyes, as severe damage may result" and then decide to try it on an inbound heavy?  If they're really curious why wouldn't the idiots do us all a favour and just blind themselves?

I've got no time for idiots like that.  Bad enough we gotta let them into our aircraft but when somebody's got to try and bring one down....

[Mike]

it's like "attempted murder" on 200+ people when you think about it....

I wonder how much longer laser pointers will be legal.
I am sure there will be an attempt once again to keep us all safe from stupid people
We are living in a world were nobody is reponsible for their own actions anymore unfortunately.

The firetrucks my girl works with have a light in the front that tells the engineer if all the firefighters are buckled in before they drive off and if something happens it's the engineers fault.
Somebody forgets or is too stupid to seatbelt himself in and if he gets hurt it's somebody elses fault?!?! 
What's this world coming to?!?