Fox: Commercial Pilots 'attacked' with laser

Fox News | Greta Van Susteren

[ableChair]

Greta Van Susteren reported that a Delta pilot enroute to Salt Lake City was lazed in the cockpit this last Wednesday. Only country I know that has that hardware (for lazing bomber pilots) was the Soviet Union. Pilot reportedly required medical treatment and this was not a minor injury (weak laser) wound. More will come out to tomorrow as this story hits the print press.

[Eva]

Wasn't the pilot in the Puget Sound incident permanently blinded?

[AdamSelene235]

I'm just telling you what's in the literature, smart a$%.

I write some of the literature, smart a$%.

[spyone]

It didn't make the national news, just local.

[Finalapproach29er]

Rainbow 6?

[AdamSelene235]

A YAG laser is invisible.

So what, it still propagates extremely well, and easily reaches the retina.

YAG eye injuries are probably the most common type of laser eye injuries given how common YAG laser are.

[ableChair]

That's why I don't think what you're saying passes the sniff test. If it were as easy as you say, SDI wouldn't have been the massive technological undertaking it was realized to be. They were talking about power levels in excess of 10 exp 16 watts! As for pulses, the question is one of total aggregate energy. But if that much energy can be absorbed in the atmosphere (as was the case with SDI) then I would suspect that the total energy delivered would also have to be astronomical to get through all that air. If it were as easy as you suggest, Reagan could have equipped the SDI satellites with lasers from Radio Shack.

[ableChair]

I write some of the literature, smart a$%

Yea, whatever. You're still a moron. It's called "conservation of energy". Look into it. Hell, Reagan should have hired you for SDI then all his problems would have been solved, being the "hobbyist expert" you are and all.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

The aversion reflex prevents most damage. The determining factor is retinal illumination.

Nonsense. Exoposure to a laser is almost instantaneous. There is no "aversion reflex" with a laser exposure. Where do you get this crap?

[AdamSelene235]

By the way, if lasers don't dissipate energy (apparently not at all if we believe you) then why did the SDI lasers they were trying to develop in the 80's require 10 exp 16 watts of power? Granted, they're burning metal, but metal should take NO WHERE NEAR 10 exp 16 watts to burn. Where's the dissipation occuring? This is one reason why SDI was so difficult to achieve, remember?

There is a significant difference between knocking down an ICBM and burning a retina.

And you don't need 10^16 W to knock down a missle.

SDI, was some silly nuclear driven X-ray laser idea.

Modern megawatt class COILs are capable of intercepting missles but the atmospheric abberation correction is tricky.

[Horatio Gates]

Soviet freighter did this to a pilot(commercial) over Puget Sound between USA and Canada a couple of years ago.

You know, after all these years I still call them Soviets too. Coincidence? I think not.

[ableChair]

Okay, smart-a$%. How much power does it take to burn metal? 10 exp 6 watts? For how long? Do you realize how much power 10 exp 16 watts is? Where's all that energy going? It's dissipating enroute.

[Habibi]

>Wouldn't the lower part of the nose of the plane limit line of sight to the eyes of the pilots mostly buried around non-light transmitting materials?

Certainly, but that doesn't mean that it came from forward of the aircraft, or if it did it may have been far enough away that it could have come straight through the forward windscreen. Though some will tell you that you can't see out of the front of the aircraft in "straight and level flight", it is a ..... misstatement. How else are you going to see the airport in front of you, or a thunderstorm if you can't see over the nose. Now I've been high enough that I couldn't see the airport in front of me, but that is another story.

>Seems to me the laser would have to be more potent than the average available at Radio Shack???

Sure it would, but there is no shortage of such lasers in the world. They are used for lots of different purposes, besides harassing pilots. Thoughts of chasing coeds from across campus with a laser in my night physics lab dance through my head from 30 years ago (but such actions would get me arrested now). Lasers were pretty "exotic" back then, but now anyone can acquire them.

Don't ever assume that it couldn't have been self-inflicted either. Pilots, being the technoids that we are, are attracted by such "pretty things". I'm aware of one of my brethren that "fried" himself with a taser (different than a laser, but potentially as nasty), that he carried in his flight bag, and the results were far too delicious to share with the general population. It is enough to say that a laser is quite ubiquitous and can be found anywhere and be possessed by anyone.

As common as these devices are, I would not instantly assume that this was an act of terror or sabotage. There are far too many careless and foolish people in the world to suspect first.

[supercat]

New VCSEL designs are making it possible to fabricate arrays of diode lasers inexpensively on a single wafer.

This really, really creeps me out that any kid will be able to pay a few bucks for a device that can blind people in an instant. Diode lasers are comparatively low power and have fairly short coherence distances. Arrays of diode lasers are more likely to be used for things like DVD players than for blinding-light weapons.

[FairOpinion]

It is much easier to damage the retina, than to burn through missiles.

[PhilDragoo]

In 97 Daly didn't realize he'd been lazed until his photos were analyzed.

The headaches began after he landed.

The laser was held by a Russian on the bridge of Kapitan Man.

Strobe Talbott tipped off the ship and it concealed the laser used.

The incident was covered up and Daly was given the full Clintonian screw.

[AdamSelene235]

Dazzling is not the same as blinding.

Yes, but only for purposes of international law.

A dazzler set on "high" is a blinding weapon.

[ableChair]

And you don't need 10^16 W to knock down a missle

Oh really? Then why does every scientist that worked on it disagree with you? Why was SDI so difficult to achieve, then? If it's that easy then why weren't you working for them? Now, of course, at point blank range you certainly don't need 10 exp 16 watts which just makes my point. Where is all that energy going? It's dissipating enroute, dumb-a$%.

[PhilDragoo]

Lt. Jack Daly

[ableChair]

It is much easier to damage the retina, than to burn through missiles

That's not the point. The point is that it takes NO WHERE NEAR 10 exp 16 watts to burn metal. In other words, most of the energy is LOST IN THE ATMOSPHERE. That, in turn, implies a VERY powerful laser would be needed to blind pilots miles off. Why is this so hard to understand?

[El Gato]

This would not be a conventional laser

Depends on what you mean by conventional. I think a surgical laser might be able to do this, and certainy an industrial cutting laser could. No, you couldn't do it with a little laser pointer.