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  • Lasers and aircraft

    Here is an extract from today's AIAA daily newsletter:


    FAA Predicts 35% Rise In Laser Aircraft Incidents.

    The Orlando Sentinel (9/16) reports, "So far this year lasers have been aimed at aircraft an average of nine times a night, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It has grown to be such a problem that in June, the FAA imposed a civil penalty of $11,000 for pointing a laser into the cockpit of an aircraft." FAA spokesman Jim Peters warned that some laser pointers on the market are capable of nearly instant close-range retinal damage. The FAA "predicts laser aircraft incidents in 2011 will top last year's record of 2,776 by 35%."

    One problem is that almost all non-aerospace people I talk to are not aware of this danger. I have never seen a single public warning message on TV and only ocasionally see an article in a newspaper.

    I have attended astronomical meetings where instructors or astronomers use laser pointers to point out stars and constellations; when I tell them it is illegal they say they are doing no harm.

    I have no doubt some people point lasers at aircraft on purpose.

  • #2
    Unfortunately i suspect is going to take one of these morons killing a few hundred people for the problem to become clear to people that these pointers are dangerous.

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    • #3
      In Russia such cases became more frequent during last months. A few people who pointed lasers at aircraft were caught but they denied that fact of hooliganism. I wonder why they do it. Perhaps for the same reason some people put stones on the railways...
      Air crashes don't just happen... www.aircrash.ucoz.net

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