Fox: Commercial Pilots 'attacked' with laser

Fox News | Greta Van Susteren

[ableChair]

Greta Van Susteren reported that a Delta pilot enroute to Salt Lake City was lazed in the cockpit this last Wednesday. Only country I know that has that hardware (for lazing bomber pilots) was the Soviet Union. Pilot reportedly required medical treatment and this was not a minor injury (weak laser) wound. More will come out to tomorrow as this story hits the print press.

[Dan Evans]

I have no idea what the beam spreading would be at that distance.

Formula for angle of diffraction of a light beam of width D is Sin theta = Lambda /D. For light of 880 nm and 5 mi and a 10 cm wide beam I get 12 cm wider at the target.

[Dan Evans]

"But he would see the ground during a landing approach."
Not really......

Would you explain that please? Are you saying that a commercial airline pilot cannot see the runway when he is approaching the airport?

[Cboldt]

That 14 mW/cm2 is for a HeNe (red light) laser, and at that power level, a .25 second exposure typically causes a blink, and causes no damage. Staring at a Class 2 HeNe will cause permanent damage to a human eye, but one has to "try" by staring at the beam. Staring at the sun has a similar effect.

However, what is happening here may or may not be "damage," being temporarily blinded is enough to affect a pilot's ability to navigate a landing.

Lots of ways to "skin the cat" as it were. A beam with 1 square meter cross section is HUGE! An alternate is to sweep a smaller beam, settling for shorter time but higher intensity of exposure.

No doubt, more than a few people have done all the figuring on this. We know it is possible to at least irritate pilots using common laser pointers.

[newzjunkey]

There was an earlier post about the Soviet Union developing a flash to catch a pilots attention so the laser could do its damage. That could be what happened here. We need to wait for more details.

[Calpernia]

I saw this. I was reading the posts last night. I can't for the life of me figure out how a lazer could be targetted to pilots in flight.

[Dan Evans]

I just figured out the confusion. It's one of those little scooters, isn't it?

[Dan Evans]

No doubt, more than a few people have done all the figuring on this. We know it is possible to at least irritate pilots using common laser pointers.

This is such a grisly thing that I would hope it would be like nerve gas -- no one wants to use it because they don't want it used against them.

But terrorists don't think like that.

[Calpernia]

>>>It's one of those little scooters, isn't it?

One of these?

[dread78645]

Virtually all lasers that will cause anything remotely like blinding are invisible to the human eye.

I worked for Kodak-Estek early 1990s setting up (relatively) low power lasers for semiconductor inspection stations. The 10mW HeNe and 75mW Ar lasers we used are certainly in the visible spectrum. And they would take your vision out for a couple of minutes (dazzled) if you managed to get a screwdriver or a wrench into the beam and got flashed.
Even ten years later, I still have "blank spots" where I have to shift my head slightly to get something into view.

[blackdog]

The runway can be seen if you try. It's really not a point of visual focus. You fly the doughnuts. About at the point of the inner marker you confirm the runway. Do you really think a pilot sees the runway at night? The best landings of your aviation career are done at night without your landing lights. Think about the cockpit arrangement, the tiny windscreen, the seat position of the pilots, and the flight attitude of most large jets during landing and takeoff. Some executive jets give decent forward visibility and you tend to not flare them, you just fly them down and settle. If you flare a lear or citation, you're doing a go around. Heavy Iron is different. The pilot can see a half mile ahead.

The laser weapons system against aircraft is really meant to hit helicopter pilots who do spend all their time with their head outside the cockpit and low to the ground. It's not meant to disorient jets or airplanes.

[blackdog]

If you really want to irritate pilots at night, taxi around with your landing lights on. Strobes too! The cockpit is meant to be managed with very low light levels as input to the pilots. Almost like what you would think is a dark-room. Any high intensity lamp or light pisses you off. Your eyes adjust to work on very low ligh levels. A sudden flash or bright light blinds you for a good fifteen seconds.

[aruanan]

Soviet freighter did this to a pilot(commercial) over Puget Sound between USA and Canada a couple of years ago.

Wasn't that a U.S. serviceman on a helicopter?

[b4its2late]

The Soviets did this during the Clinton years and Clinton just ignored it.

Yeah, but he was the greatest president ever, right? /sarcasm

That SOB.

[wordsofearnest]

The flight originated in Dallas

[Darth Hillary]

Lasers do not obey the inverse square law. As Adam described short wavelength lasers (blue or UV) are most suseptible to atmospheric power loss. SDI type lasers use lines in the 2000 nm and the 4000 nm range, way past infared, and completely invisible.

For less than $1000 in parts you can build a NdYAG delivering ten's of watts, the 1064 nm beam is not visible at all. A KTP crystal can inexpensively frequency double that to a lime greem 532 nm.

A good quality collimating lens or beam expander would keep the beam focused over many miles. You won't ablate metal, but you could cause serious eye damage.

[Gucho]

Laser injures Delta pilot's eye:

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040928-111356-3924r.htm

[MeekOneGOP]

I love cryptic posts. What are you trying to say? I'll have to guess because cryptic posters never respond. Perhaps you're straw-manning me into saying that lasers couldn't blind people? Never said that and it has nothing to do with the current debate. Read my posts.

Huh? Cryptic Post? Now you have me buffaloed. Did you find my post "cryptic", TBarnett34 ??

I merely COPIED your post to AdamSelene235 in post #16 on this thread and commented that that is what I was looking for. What is so cryptic about that? I went through posts 1-16 trying to figure out what the heck ACTUALLY happened to the pilot since your initial thread post didn't really have any detail.

Since you tell me to "read your posts" here, does that mean that your post in #16 was INCORRECT ¿¿¿

I have no intention of going through over 400 posts on an Easter egg hunt to try to guess which of your posts contains the facts of this story.

[.38sw]

Revelation 13...

13. And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men.

Well, then, what is everyone arguing about? This clears everything up! It wasn't a laser, it's fire from sky. Thanks!

[finnman69]

hey way cool, thanks

[Steve_Seattle]

I'm not a pilot, but I thought planes landed in a slightly "nose up" position, so I'm wondering how a laser beam coming from the ground could have the proper angle to penetrate the cockpit in such a way as to strike the pilot's eyes.