A pilot inside a commercial jet doesn't even have a forward view during straight and level flight. Maybe out the side window, but nothing but cockpit panel out the front. In order to effectively laze into the cockpit, you'd have to be in a position above the airplane.
But he would see the ground during a landing approach.
Not to mention the fact that you'd have to hit a small target (a face) and hold it there for at least a few seconds, while the airplane was moving anywhere from 160 mph on takeoff or final approach, to 500+ mph at cruise altitudes of 33,000 feet or more.
I'm not saying it couldn't happen, it's just an awful odd thing to hear about. It almost sounds more accident than intentional, though I can't fathom how either could occur.
}:-)4
You are correct, as I understand it the P-3 guy got it when checking out a ship and looking out of a side window, or from the side of the windshield in a banking turn around said ship. Still bad stuff. Son Ace may know more, but he doesn't like talking about things that he can't control.
DTOM