Yes.
I honestly don’t believe they think at all about their behavior, because…
I remember it being referenced in an article early last summer.
The article I read early last summer focused mainly on this aspect of the issue. The article noted that many pilots don’t even realize they’ve been lased when it occurs. The beam burns the back of the retina and the damage spreads over time to blind the affected eye, thereby eventually destroying a pilot’s career. The article opened with information about people in Santa Barbara being arrested for misuse of a Class {whatever} laser – and it’s apparently a big deal because there’s a small commercial airport up there and also parts of the county are along the flight path for that obscure little airfield called Los Angeles International…
And I was thinking about that article a month ago, while I was at a 99-cent store hunting for Halloween Decorations. I was looking at a rack of dozens of little 3-inch battery-cell fueled laser-pointers with interchangeable heads that make pretty little pictures – yeah, that’s right: It was in the toy section!
And that’s the problem: People are buying these cheap little devices and giving them to elementary school kids as toys without even reading the warnings on the packaging, much less uttering a single word of caution to their kid, who just wants, wants, wants, a shiny new toy. And, hey, it’s not like it fires a real dart or plastic ball, much less a copper ball-bearing (You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!) so how much harm could it really do? The article I mention above said the FAA and other agencies on the task force considered television warnings but nixed the idea for fear of giving some disgruntled brat any vengeful ideas.
At the risk of impeding capitalism and dollar-store investment profits, I really think those devices need to be pulled off the shelves. Yeah, it’s great that we’ve got the technology to make them so quick and cheap when they were a mere pipe dream in the 1970’s, but more thought and control needs to go into their availability and sales. Then again, this is the NRA nation, and regulation of a “harmless” little laser (particularly when those lasers can be mounted on a gun) would never make it to the floor for discussion.
–G!
Plutocracy: Where politicians think profits are more important than people.
Thanks! Ignorance fought.
The beam width as seen by the pilots & blimp surface is much bigger than the reflected spot you see on the side of the blimp.
Odds are he caused some issues. And for darn sure he committed the relevant Federal offense.
Probably a good idea for you to suggest he not do this again.
I have one of those little 3-inch laser pointers (on a key ring, no less.) One night I went out in the backyard, pointed it at a nearby school building, and made a nice, visible red circle on the wall.
I checked the distance. 810 feet:eek:
Count me in as another one who had no idea it was a thing. I would have assumed they were too weak to do anything that far away–not that it would have occurred to me to try, as I don’t own one. If they are that dangerous, why sell them to the public then?
That’s why I think a video is worth 100,000 words - seeing is believing and all that. It’s far more convincing than a verbal argument.
Tonight on the national news they said the culprit is typically a young male in the late teens/early 20’s which is a prime age for doing stupid stuff without thought to consequences. (Obviously, there are exceptions to that general rule).
As to why sell them… well, we sell guns to citizens, don’t we? And people shooting at airplanes is also a “thing”, although I think the notion “don’t shoot an airplane” is more ingrained in folks than “don’t point lasers at airplanes”. Even so, education on the topic is a good thing.
Of course they don’t know. Why would they? Are there any warnings on the packaging?
I mean, these are toys used to make cats do silly things. You guys talk like this is common knowledge.
I know I might have tried it. (I tried it on the moon once.) Now I won’t. It’s ridiculous to say that getting the information out there would not help.
Addendum: Polarisation works fine for light that is already polarised - reflection (off water, snow, etc) polarises sunlight, and a filter that only passes light polarised vertically will do an excellent job of stopping light polarised horizontally. Laser light isn’t necessarily polarised and in that case a polarised filter will have negligible effect.
You honestly needed to be told not to shine a light in the eyes of a person piloting an aircraft?
Another person arrested in a different incident last night, from my hometown.
You’re an astronaut?
They aren’t stupid, they are malicious. There is no reason at all to point a laser at an aircraft but to at least scare the hell out of anyone on board or at worst, cause some sort of catastrophic outcome.
I’ve witnessed an idiot targeting other drivers from a moving car one morning before dawn on the way to work. In addition to the danger to other’s eyes the possibility struck me that his laser might be part of a handgun targeting sight. Either way it’s beyond disconcerting, dangerous and I had to move through traffic to put as much distance between us as possible. There may be a few reasonable uses for these lasers but I’m all for the legislature weighing that value against the potential danger they cause for pilots and the travelling public at large.
Someone who doesn’t inherently grasp that shining a laser at a plane, and potentially into the eyes of a pilot, is a bad idea needs a level of care that far exceeds “nannying.”
Ah. Well.
I can imagine idly wondering “how far away this thing will shine” and naively pointing it at a passing aircraft. But only at the underside, or something—not into the cockpit.
[QUOTE=lieu]
Yes, it was. Ironically the ad that popped up before I could watch it was Blinds To Go.
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I got an ad where everyone was wearing pirate-style eye patches. Coincidence, or is someone cherry-picking the ads for anything “blind” or eye-related?
As for the original question, no, people do not understand that they shouldn’t point lasers at aircraft, just as they can’t understand not using a lawn mower to trim hedges and that the beverage they are about to enjoy is extremely hot.
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink]
I can imagine idly wondering “how far away this thing will shine” and naively pointing it at a passing aircraft. But only at the underside, or something—not into the cockpit.
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Sure, but the aircraft has a ground speed in the range of about 200-600 miles per hour. How accurately can you track by hand that and not waver from the belly of the plane?
I was going to make the same point; also that airliners are pretty small at altitude. But I have an idea that most incidents occur on final approach or takeoff, or involve helicopters, when the aircraft is a larger target.
Many people also seem to think that laser beams don’t spread. IOW, they think the beam is 1/8" or whatever across when it leave the device and so therefore it’s still 1/8" or whatever in diameter when it gets to the target.
WRONG.
Lasers spread even in a vacuum, and do it more in an atmosphere. And even more in a hazy or smoky atmosphere. Yes, they spread much less than a conventional light beam formed by a conventional lens. But no, they don’t spread zero.
At a couple miles distance the beam width is big enough that if you hit the tail, at least some of the edge energy is in the cockpit. Sure, the spot you might see at night isn’t that big, but the spot you see is NOT the size of the spot that hits.
And more likely you’ll never see a spot on the aircraft at all. All you’ll be doing is waving this thing which has no real aiming sights in the approximate direction of the aircraft. Whether you hit the aircraft’s front, the back, the middle, or no place is essentially random. And with your wavering aim you may flash on and off the cockpit several times.
I said in an earlier post that I think most incidents are stupidity or ignorance (or both) not malice. But that doesn’t detract from the actual serious hazard here, especially (but not exclusively) at night.
Paradoxically, if the FAA & industry do get an aggressive and widespread public awareness and prosecution campaign going then we’ll see two effects. Firstly a decrease in total events as the clueless become cluefull. And secondly an increase in number of malicious events as gratuitously malicious people learn of a new way to be gratuitously malicious.
People suck.