# Lasers and planes : risk of eye injury to the pilots and copilots? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasers-and-planes-risk-of-eye-injury-to-the-pilots-and-copilots/725418 "2015-07-17T15:37:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasers-and-planes-risk-of-eye-injury-to-the-pilots-and-copilots/725418/21 "2015-07-22T22:39:52Z")
I suggest the OP reads [this thread](http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/349414-l-sers-attacks-aircraft.html) on Pprune where he’ll read of lots of experiences of many pilots. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasers-and-planes-risk-of-eye-injury-to-the-pilots-and-copilots/725418/22 "2015-07-22T23:35:47Z")
Too bad jet liners don’t carry even bigger lasers. That’s teach those miscreants a lesson or two. Zaaapppppppp! ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasers-and-planes-risk-of-eye-injury-to-the-pilots-and-copilots/725418/23 "2015-07-23T12:13:47Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > Anyways, the focusing lens or mirror in a handheld laser is tiny. R^2 law. Isn’t the risk of eye injury from a 2 watt or so laser at a jet 5000 feet or more away small? I think you misunderstand the nature of lasers. The beam is highly collimated, so the intensity does not fall off with distance in the same way that a light bulb does; the beam can retain high levels of intensity for very great distances. Cheap handheld lasers may have high divergence (compared to expensive research/industrial lasers), but damage to pilots’ retinas by them has been documented. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasers-and-planes-risk-of-eye-injury-to-the-pilots-and-copilots/725418/24 "2015-07-23T15:37:13Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > I think you misunderstand the nature of lasers. The beam is highly collimated, so the intensity does not fall off with distance in the same way that a light bulb does; the beam can retain high levels of intensity for very great distances. It’s you who misunderstand. They are absolutely subject to the same laws as any other form of light. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasers-and-planes-risk-of-eye-injury-to-the-pilots-and-copilots/725418/25 "2015-07-23T16:03:48Z")
My sources : reading about an article to bounce a laser off the reflectors on the moon (the beam spread was enormous by the time it got there), the air force’s airborne laser (if laser light wasn’t subject to optics equations, the laser wouldn’t need that enormous focusing mirror at the nose), reading about a method to launch spacecraft with lasers (same deal : big focusing mirrors), reading about the theory behind spacecraft armed with lasers (same thing), and so on. Basically it’s an undisputed fact of nature. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasers-and-planes-risk-of-eye-injury-to-the-pilots-and-copilots/725418/26 "2016-09-06T00:31:42Z")
Bumped. I just read _One Hundred Days_ by Adm. Sandy Woodward, who commanded the British battle group during the 1982 Falklands War. He mentions in passing that the frigate HMS _Plymouth_ “was fitted with the new laser equipment known locally to us as ‘Flasher’ - which could well have stopped [an Argentine Air Force] attack in its tracks, because it literally forces any incoming pilot to pull up sharply during the forty-second period in which he cannot see.” The ship evidently never had the chance to use it, however. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasers-and-planes-risk-of-eye-injury-to-the-pilots-and-copilots/725418.md?page=1)