Pointing Lasers at Aircraft

[Loachman]

I wonder if the person even realized

that there was an aircraft up there.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

yes at 36,000' your getting to the point that a person might not realize it's there. Also the odds of being able to dazzle it at that range with a hand held is pretty unlikely. I have a green laser on one my rifles, I want to say 5W but can't recall for sure. In daylight I can see the dot on a target out to about 200m. Nighttime further than that, but I have not tried to far for safety reasons. Keep in mind these cheap lasers are not as well made as military ones and diffuse much faster. (I treat lasers a bit like firearms)

 

[Old Sweat]

Perhaps the reason the incident was reported was its unlikeliness, given the factors raised in the three preceding posts.

 

[George Wallace]

....... (I treat lasers a bit like firearms)

Exactly how they should be treated.

Just wondering if the culprit in this case may have had a "rangefinder" and was trying it out?

 

[Occam]

yes at 36,000' your getting to the point that a person might not realize it's there. Also the odds of being able to dazzle it at that range with a hand held is pretty unlikely. I have a green laser on one my rifles, I want to say 5W but can't recall for sure. In daylight I can see the dot on a target out to about 200m. Nighttime further than that, but I have not tried to far for safety reasons. Keep in mind these cheap lasers are not as well made as military ones and diffuse much faster. (I treat lasers a bit like firearms)

It's actually quite easy to obtain devices with that kind of power now...which is part of the problem.  Check out http://www.wickedlasers.com/krypton, which is a 1 watt laser.  The laser on your rifle is under 500 mW, but probably much lower than that.

 

[YZT580]

There are more questions than answers on this one:  how did the ac realize it was being tagged?  I have met very few crew members, who at cruise altitudes, ever even looking out the window for traffic.  Was it a military ac with on board sensors?  What type of scope was the person using to be able to locate, focus upon and tag an a/c at that altitude? 

 

[SupersonicMax]

Most military lasers are not in th visible light spectrum...

 

[Occam]

Military lasers, yes.  But higher power green and blue lasers may have a visible beam due to Rayleigh scattering (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_pointer for more information).  You wouldn't need to have the beam aimed at you, you'd be able to see the beam dancing in front of the aircraft.

 

[Eagle_Eye_View]

Exactly, speaking from personal experience, blue laser is actually easy to spot (even got lased right in the eyes). However from what I've encounter it was around 2k feet, not 36k. I'm assuming it must have been a powerful laser.

 

[RedcapCrusader]

I read somewhere that lasers can interfere with the electronic instruments in an aircraft, causing gauges and other registers to report information that is not necessarily correct.

...and as we all know, at some altitudes it can cause injury to the pilots.

The most perplexing thing is, why don't people realize that there is possibility that pointing a laser anywhere above the horizon has potential to come in contact with aircraft? Oh right, it's because human stupidity is infinite.

 

[Kirkhill]

Perhaps the reason the incident was reported was its unlikeliness, given the factors raised in the three preceding posts.

Most reasonable explanation - an unusual set of coincidental factors that raise the probabilities above that of common coincidence?

 

[SupersonicMax]

  Was it a military ac with on board sensors?

I was replying to this, but I just realized I may have misinterpreted what YZT meant.

 

[Good2Golf]

I was replying to this, but I just realized I may have misinterpreted what YZT meant.

My bet would be a 532nm (green) laser that happened to sweep the cockpit of a US Mil a/c.  yes, 'some' mil a/c have Band I/III LWR, and a green laser, even uncoded/PCM'd, definitely would flag a Band I LWR, but if that was how a mil a/c was warned about the laser 'engagement', then i don't think you'd hear a lot of details about how the OPP are still looking for the offender...

Mein :2c:

G2G

 

[Loachman]

I read somewhere that lasers can interfere with the electronic instruments in an aircraft, causing gauges and other registers to report information that is not necessarily correct.

I've read that only once - here.

 

[Blackadder1916]

I've read that only once - here.

But, but . . . it was on the internet . . . it must be true!

 

[Eye In The Sky]

lasers are being directed / targeted at aircraft in some operations, and at significant altitudes.  There is thought that they may be mounted on tripod, etc for stability and added accuracy in getting beam on target. 

 

[Eagle_Eye_View]

In Kuwait it's considered a hobby by the locals.

 

[The Bread Guy]

The latest (in French):  it appears a teen's being charged with pointing a laser @ a CF-18 in Quebec:

Un jeune homme qui s’amusait à pointer un laser sur un avion de chasse à la base des Forces canadiennes Bagotville y réfléchira sans doute à deux fois avant de recommencer puisqu’il a été arrêté peu de temps par la police de Saguenay.

Deux avions de chasse CF-18 étaient en phase d’approche quand l’un d’eux a été aveuglé temporairement par un laser. Le pilote en charge de la formation a averti immédiatement la tour de contrôle de la base, qui a notifié la police militaire, qui a elle-même averti la police de Saguenay.

Le lieutenant Christian Michaud du Service de Police de Saguenay a expliqué à 45eNord.ca que la police a effectivement reçu un appel de la police militaire vers 19h35, jeudi soir, indiquant qu’un pilote avait été victime d’un laser pointé en sa direction.

Le premier appareil s’est posé sans difficultés sur la piste de la base, tandis que le deuxième est resté dans les airs pour localiser avec précision à l’aide du GPS l’origine du laser.

À l’aide des coordonnées GPS transmises par l’avion, la police a été capable de retrouver rapidement un groupe de jeunes hommes à l’est de l’aéroport et non loin des pistes et a interpellé un automobiliste de 17 ans de La Baie, qui avait en sa possession un crayon laser.

En interview avec 45eNord.ca, le commandant de la base des Forces canadiennes Bagotville, le colonel Darcy Molstad, lui-même pilote de chasse, n’a pas manqué de souligner la dangerosité d’une telle action.

«Ça peut être très très dangereux. Pour la santé du pilote, mais aussi pour l’appareil lui-même. Nous prenons ça extrêmement au sérieux», de dire le colonel Molstad. Il précise que les règles sont claires et espère que le message sera passé au sein de la population: «il ne faut pas s’amuser à pointer un laser sur un avion» ...