Slashdot Mirror
Laser Strikes On Aircraft Becoming Epidemic
First time accepted submitter AlphaWolf_HK writes "Ars Technica has a story about a 52 year old man who was arrested and sentenced to three years in jail for shining a high powered green laser at a helicopter along with an interesting video showing how he was tracked down. The FBI says that laser strikes are becoming epidemic, saying that they expect to see reports of 3,700 of them this year."
Make the bastard spend his years in line for the TSA.
My solution would be to mount even more powerful lasers on some of the aircraft. Fight fire with fire. Plus, it would just be cool.
Federal investigators have released this video of a French citizen wanted in connection with an array of high-power green lasers aimed skyward.
Rumours that the "attack" was actually part of a concert were dismissed by US Federal Music Expert, Sam Confederate IV, who said "I know both types of music, and that there noise in the video ain't country *or* western."
However, attempts at having the suspect- known only as "Jimmy Shelljar"- deported from France to the United States have run into problems. A legal document, addressed to "Our bestest friend, Nicolas "L'Americaine" Sarkozy, The French White House, Paris, France" was returned marked "no longer at this address". In addition, scribbled underneath was a cartoon of a "cheese-eating surrender monkey" making an obscene gesture and the message, "Fuck you, arrogant Yankee scum! Signed President François "La Socialiste" Hollande".
Investigators believe that the suspect is motivated by frustration at not having released a worthwhile album in over ten years. More news as we get it.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Excellent: We'll equip the pilots with Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses!
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
The only problem I see with this particular article was that it was very clear just how much of a dumbshit the guy with the laser was. If he had been inside a building or car going from place to place to change where he used the laser from he probably wouldn't have been caught. Likewise had he discarded the laser the second he saw a police car coming, while out of site of the helicopter, chances are fair they wouldn't have found the evidence either.
Watch the video again. I agree he was dumbshit, but that is not why he was caught. He was caught because he just happened to target a police helicopter on that particular night. Had it been any other type of aircraft he would not have been caught. Note, how hard it is to pinpoint his location with the visible light camera at night, and how intense the laser energy was. They were able to track him thanks to the long range IR camera, which is not common civilian equipment.
There may have been things he could have done to increase the difficultly of finding him with the IR camera, but at the end of the day he just picked the wrong aircraft to fuck with. But could have been worse for him, he could have lased an armed Predator.
Why do that?
I would love it to see the pilots come on board wearing huge fucking goggles, perhaps with leather caps as well. Give a thumbs up to the passengers before the flight.
Easy, we just use two polarizing filters offset by an angle of 90 degrees from each other!
I welcome our new 99% overlords.
Compromise: Huge fucking goggles on the windshield.