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UK Pilots' Union Calls For Laser Pointers To Be Classed As Offensive Weapons (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The body that represents airline pilots in the UK has called for handheld laser pointers to be classed as offensive weapons, after a Virgin Atlantic flight to the U.S. was forced to return to Heathrow when its co-pilot was dazzled by a laser during takeoff. The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) said aircraft were being "attacked" by the devices "at an alarming rate and with lasers with ever-increasing strength." It said the problem was becoming "more and more urgent."
how about instead, equip planes with a return-fire laser? one that, say, would melt granite at 3 miles? you'll stop repeat offenders dead in their tracks, so to speak. much cheaper and more effective.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
They banned them here in Australia over a decade ago after a number of incidents of people using them against planes. One such incident was my brother, still remember that night as federal police turned up to our property to find the offender that caused a plane to do an emergency aborted landing, while they let him off with a warning my parents certainly didn't.
Could they apply some kind of filtration film to the inside of cockpit windscreens to block or at least mute the fairly narrow spectrum green lasers use?
I'm only a laser expert to the extent I read the wikipedia laser pointer page, so maybe this doesn't work. I guess I wouldn't expect it to be completely effective, but maybe enough to limit the risk to pilot vision?
Unfortunately, I know of a case where had I had a laser I would have shone it at a plane.
The situation, out with a number of friends, (coincidentally, several Aerospace Engineers, and 2 pilots in training, one might have started later, but are now a pilot). Just laying down, well away from any airports, etc. Watching a meteor shower. I look away from the shower, and see a bright star, go huh, wonder what that is, then I'm distracted. I look that way a bit later, and it seems to have moved a little. Not visibly, but over time it appears to have changed positions. Maybe a really high orbiting satellite? I try to point it out. (If I'd had a laser, I would have shone it, in fact someone made the comment that they wish they'd had a laser, so I could point it out.) Eventually others notice the motion, and we are all trying to figure out what it is. The motion then (this is taking a while, maybe 15-30 minutes, it's hard to recall, but it was a long time, we had broke out star charts to see what it was.) Fast forward, everyone is watching it, it becomes visibly moving, and brighter than anything else. Several minutes later, we see what it is, a twin engine, airliner type (Consensus was something like an A350, I think, didn't see the markings, as it came almost directly overhead. I know according to people I was with, it wasn't a Boeing.) with it's landing gear down, and it's lights on. (The bottom of the plane was rather well illuminated.)
So yeah, we would definitely have shone a laser at a plane, had we had a laser. (Granted, it was way the hell out.) That's in a group of people who are very focused on aircraft in general, and had we known, never would have, but the lack of identification makes it odd. Plus, who flies with their gear down that long, unless it's an emergency?