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$10k Reward For Info On Anyone Who Points a Laser At Planes Goes Nationwide
coondoggie writes: "The FBI today said it was making national a pilot program it tried out in 12 locations earlier this year that offers up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of anyone who intentionally aims a laser at an aircraft. According to the FBI, the pilot locations have seen a 19% decrease in the number of reported laser-to-aircraft incidents. Those locations included: Albuquerque, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia."
Polarized glass will do nothing. The issue with the laser is that, by time it reaches the plane, it's spread a fair amount. When it hits the glass of the cockpit, which has various minuscule scratches and dirt and whatnot, it gets lit up like a Christmas tree. Polarized glass will suffer the same fate. It's the dirt and imperfections that blind the pilot.
You'd think they'd have just put polarized glass in the cockpit by now if it were that big of a deal. Oh wait... that's right, it's not that big of a deal.
If it were as simple as polarized glass they might actually go that route. Unfortunately for everyone, it is much more complicated than that. You need specific lenses to protect from specific wavelengths (of which there are many).
[...] hold a laser on a cockpit window for more than a tenth of a second. If a pilot is unable to land a plane after a flash of light that brief, we'd better start making lightening illegal because it's a hell of a lot brighter [...]
With high powered lasers (that are surprisingly easy to come by) a fraction of a second is all it takes to cause serious and often permanent eye injury.
Ok, wheres your studies to prove this?
You need a study to know that laser pointers are non-polarized and that shining a bright, non-polarized light through a polarizing filter doesn't stop the light from passing through? And even if the filter is 100% efficient, which none of them are, you only cut 1/2 the light that passes, and none of the light that lights up the crazing or other imperfections in the windows.
Remember, we're talking about sending stupid per-pubesent teenagers to prison.
No, we're talking about a $10,000 reward for information about people committing a crime.
I'm not saying they shouldn't get in trouble. I'm saying $10,000 rewards are insanely excessive.
Do you not know the difference between a fine, which is punishment for the criminal, and a reward, which isn't?
Trying to pass laws that make being young and stupid illegal haven't worked very well in the past.
Too late. It is already against the law to point a laser pointer at an aircraft. The law says nothing about "young and stupid people who point laser pointers", it covers old and smart people too. And if you think that pointing a laser pointer at an airplane will make it "fall out of the sky", you're wrong.