[babygene]

"Nope. Easily done from the ground."

Lasers that will damage the eye, are indeed, available on ebay. However, to aim such a laser at someone's eye (even at 100 feet) would be very difficult. To try to catch a pilot's eye at 1000 feet would be next to impossible. Even if you got lucky, the exposure would only be tens of microseconds and would be harmless.

For this to work, it would have to be a very high power laser. Most lasers have outputs that are measured in milliwatts. I have a couple of lasers that put out 30 watts of inferred. They will burn through a yardstick in about 10 seconds. (I use them for laser engraving) But you could never collimate the beams good enough to get any distance.

The bottom line is... This article is a bunch of horse puckey.

[AdamSelene235]

Lasers that will damage the eye, are indeed, available on ebay. However, to aim such a laser at someone's eye (even at 100 feet) would be very difficult. To try to catch a pilot's eye at 1000 feet would be next to impossible.

It would be a bit tricky, but not beyond the ability of a competant grad. student.

Even if you got lucky, the exposure would only be tens of microseconds and would be harmless.

You're thinking CW, a Q-switched laser would do the job in nanoseconds.

The bottom line is... This article is a bunch of horse puckey.

Perhaps, but if it did happen. I suspect it was a government or research system such as a GuideStar.