FAA goes to the Web to fight lasers directed at aircraft battle

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/faa-goes-web-fight-lasers-directed-aircraft-b

by coondoggie • 15 years ago

10 14 15 years ago

asolove• 15 years ago

Does anyone know more about this phenomenon than the little in this and similar articles I've seen recently?

Pointing a laser at an airplane thousands of feet in the air traveling hundreds of miles an hour for long enough that a pilot notices the dot seems an impressive feat. Thinking about the geometry involved with the position of the cockpit windows on most airplanes, it also seems like it must be done from far away horizontally, at a fairly low angle.

It seems to my naive interpretation that accomplishing this would be substantially more than just a small prank.

nobody3144• 15 years ago

You don't need scientific facts anymore - just a lawyer

"FAA released what it called a legal interpretation, which finds that directing a laser beam into an aircraft cockpit could interfere with a flight crew performing its duties while operating an aircraft"

If only they would release a legal interpretation that aircraft can fly without engines we would save a fortune in fuel, reduce noise and GHG emmisions.

carbocation• 15 years ago

Sigh. You know, there are some topics on which I might agree with your jaded view. But a topic like this? Where there is real risk of harm? And where the FAA is trying to figure out which laws they might use to protect people from such harm? I think your sarcasm is misplaced in this instance.

artmageddon• 15 years ago

Private pilot here - while I've never experienced a laser incident while flying (and I sure as hell never want to), it's not as hard to hit an aircraft with a laser as you might think. People who do this aren't targeting 767's at 33,000 - they're hitting the ones taxiing on the ground, those flying at low altitudes, or worse, those in the pattern for a landing. The night blindness from getting hit with a laser can have fatal consequences, and it carries serious penalties.

See the image at the lower right on the first page for a sampling of the effects of being hit with a green laser(warning: PDF): http://www.ifalpa.org/downloads/Level1/Briefing%20Leaflets/M...

Law enforcement takes these sorts of things very seriously. Here's a video(SFW) of one person who hit a police helicopter and was arrested minutes later:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6617532/guy-shines-laser-p...

abibibo• 15 years ago

With your average presentation style red laser pointer I don't think there's any chance you'd be able to disturb a pilot. The astronomy pointer lasers and similar high powered units are what I understand to be the issue. They still look the same as a regular laser pointer pen, but emit a much more intense beam that remains visible for several miles.

When I played with a unit a friend had, at 200 yards the beam was already ~3' in diameter--so it's not exactly a tiny dot your trying to aim. In addition, you can see the beam as it travels through air, making it much easier to align if you were trying to aim it at something distant.

Edit: For a decent video of these handheld units in action, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAeF_bTF9CM. Units can be acquired relatively cheaply now (sub $100) which probably explains why this is an increasing trend.

barrkel3• 15 years ago

Were you at the other end of that 200 yard beam? I remember playing with presentation lasers when I was a teenager. At night, you could light up the side of a building, visibly, from over a kilometer away. The divergence factor is certainly substantial - this makes it easier to hit a plane from distance - but it's still very bright. I remember thinking that they would make useful point-to-point morse code transmitters at night, because the "dot" is highly visible at the other end of the beam, even over substantial distances.

But I'd certainly agree that the astronomy lasers are a far bigger threat, the presentation lasers are more likely to be just a minor nuisance over any kind of range.

marshray• 15 years ago

So, is this an example of the US Federal Govt making a reasonable, non-hysterical response to a new-ish emerging threat?

FAA goes to the Web to fight lasers directed at aircraft battle

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