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Laser Injures Delta Pilot's Eye

stormfish writes "The Washington Times is reporting that laser light from an unknown source injured a pilot's eye as he was flying a Boeing 737 from Dallas to Salt Lake City. A 5 milliwatt laser pointer is strong enough to damage a person's eye, and stronger laser's are not that hard to come by. Unfortunately, having pilots wear colored laser safety glasses would be impractical as that would make it impossible to interpret the colored symbols on paper maps and cockpit displays."

29 of 772 comments (clear)

  1. Sharks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did anyone think to check the frickin' sharks in the Great Salt Lake?

  2. Oh the irony by BabyDave · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nothing for you to see here.

  3. Caution! by shawn(at)fsu · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do not look at laser with remaining eye.

    How many times do we need to tell people that

    --
    500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
  4. Ha... by c0dedude · · Score: 3, Funny

    Thinkgeek wanted for questioning.

    --
    Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
  5. Hmm... by Raagshinnah · · Score: 5, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our new flying shark overlords

    *cringes in terror*

    1. Re:Hmm... by MustardMan · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wow, slashdot reverse psychology really does work. Almost every post that says "mod me down if you want" gets modded up, and I say my post is not offtopic (which clearly it isn't) and within a few minutes, it gets modded offtopic.

      Now THIS post is offtopic, so mod me down if you want to.

      Now that I've said to mod me down, I will most likely get modded up.

      UH-OH, now that I've said both I'll both be modded down AND modded up, what will the predictible little mouthbreather slashdot mods do? I wonder if their heads will explode. Now that I've insulted the mods, I'm SURE to get modded down, but hell I've got karma to burn.

  6. So, what you're really saying is... by freeze128 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The goggles do nothing!

  7. Re:Easy to get these lasers... by Mr+Guy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hearby declare the parent post to be a threat to National Security! You can't just go around posting links to dangerous things on the web! Think of the chaos! Think of the humanity! What about the CHILDREN!

  8. Re:Easy to get these lasers... by hhlost · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hell, we could invade all the countries who might be trying to obtain them. But let's start with the ones that have oil.

  9. Re:Probably going to only increase by hoggoth · · Score: 4, Funny

    > using multiple lasers at different frequencies, or perhaps by frequency cycling.

    Wasn't this a line from an episode of Star Trek?

    --
    - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  10. Right out of a Clancy Book... by maybeHere · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think it was "Debt of Honour" where CIA operatives near the airport use lasers to blind japanese (don't ask) AWACS pilots, making them crash their planes. Coincidentally, that book ends with a airliner being crashed into the White House. Soo, what does this mean? It's obvious - Tom Clancy is providing The Terrorists (tm) with ideas and needs to be put in jail ASAP!

  11. No more ecstacy for the pilots........ by ARRRLovin · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The plane's two pilots reported that the Boeing 737 had been five miles from the airport when they saw a laser beam inside the cockpit, said officials familiar with government reports of the Sept. 22 incident."

    Next thing you know, they're smearing vaporub on each other and are struggling to find words to describe how awesome their faces feel right now.

    --
    -Randy
  12. Re:"Colored laser safety glasses" by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    > Having pilots wear coloured safety glasses wouldn't be impractical, it would be impossible; the only colour that would block all laser frequencies is black.

    Simple. Equip every pilot with a pair of Joo-Janta 2000 Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses, that turn totally black at the first indication of danger! Joo-Janta 2000 Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses: Another fine product of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation!

  13. Re:Sigh...another reference to terrorism by LurkerXXX · · Score: 4, Funny

    How are they going to make a 'laser protective windshield"? You can't just filter one frequency out and call it safe. Lasers do come in more than one wavelength. If they spend the money, they can shine whatever wavelength they want at you. What are you expecting? The captain to order the crew to 'modulate the shield frequency', and if that doesn't work, 'reverse the polarity'?

  14. Re:Sigh...another reference to terrorism by spoonyfork · · Score: 3, Funny

    Are we going to assume that everytime something happens to someone, a terrorist is behind it? I for one am tired of our leaders trying to make us afraid.

    Why do you hate freedom?

    --
    Speak truth to power.
  15. Re:Easy to get these lasers... by VC · · Score: 4, Funny

    Stay where you are, we'll be over in black vans to pick you up in a couple of minutes..

  16. LDS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    We need to add Laser Detection Systems to the planes, that will fire a laser back in the same direction as the incoming one, a little offset so as to hit the terrorist in the eye. An eye for an eye.

  17. Re:Easy to get these lasers... by gurps_npc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Better start with the ones that have oil that we sold lasers to.

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  18. They actually saw the BEAM? by Dr.+Stavros · · Score: 4, Funny
    they saw a laser beam inside the cockpit

    Now, please let me be the first pedant to point out that for them to have actually seen the beam inside the cockpit, then it must have been helluva dusty or smokey in there. Who were the pilots? Cheech and Chong?

  19. Re:Sigh...another reference to terrorism by BlueTooth · · Score: 3, Funny

    Laser protected wind shield: a piece of metal. Commerical airlines are flown almost entirely on intruments, the glass windshield is there for taxing around the runway. Even landing is starting to be done "by wire" ... I think the true solution is to just make it so the pilot doesn't need to see. If he gets hit while taxing, no big deal. That's what co-pilots are for.

    --
    SPAM
  20. Re:Easy to get these lasers... by FLEB · · Score: 5, Funny

    -- There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.

    Soap, ballot, jury, ammo... LASER!

    --
    Information wants to be free.
    Entertainment wants to be paid.
    You just want to be cheap.
  21. Re:I've seen this too -- it happened to me. by serjinn · · Score: 5, Funny

    No it has nothing to do with the energy. It's actually quite simple:

    green = Rebels
    red = Imperials

    Clearly you were attacked by one of the good guys.

  22. Re:Easy to get these lasers... by BasilBrush · · Score: 5, Funny

    Potential future Darwin Award nominee. Investigating the effects of lasers by looking directly into the beam.

  23. Re:Easy to get these lasers... by oreilco · · Score: 3, Funny

    Getting the lasers might be easy, but training the Sharks to aim at the frickin' aircraft is not so easy.

  24. Re:Laser pointers not a risk to aircraft by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Funny
    Actually, that's Executive Orders. Not Debt of honor.

    Actually it is Debt of Honor.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  25. Re:Easy to get these lasers... by freqres · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, I think he meant this one.

    --
    Rampant Ninja related crimes these days...Whitehouse is not the exception
  26. Re:Easy to get these lasers... by legirons · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Stay where you are, we'll be over in black vans to pick you up in a couple of minutes.."

    Make sure you blindfold the pilots of your black helicopters as they fly in, so they don't get blinded by his laser...

  27. Re:Easy to get these lasers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's not just the laser pointers. All pointers can be harmful to the eye.

  28. Re:Easy to get these lasers... by Wolfier · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't read the following line

    int *b;

    OUCH!!