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Laser Injures Delta Pilot's Eye

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the scary-thought dept.

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."

2 of 772 comments (clear)

  1. Sharks? by Solstice · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I bet it was those sharks with friggen laser beams. Either that or ill-tempered sea bass. Everyone deserve a warm meal!

  2. What about laser safe glass? by Digital_Quartz · · Score: 0, Redundant

    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.



    Why not make the glass of the cockpit windows out of laser safety glass? Or, have a "laser safety shield" that rolls down in front of the glass for landings?



    This isn't much of a security threat. Most commercial airliners are quite capable of landing themselves without pilot intervention. Pilots are handy to have around when things go wrong (ILS is deflected, some kind of serious software problem, etc...) but otherwise the plane can land itself safely, and autopilot is frequently used to land planes today.



    Really, if someone is pointing lasers at planes as they land, they're just being a bit of a jerk.