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Anecdote: I was flying during instrument training at night and took a laser strike from a small town about 30nm north of a class bravo airport (very large airli

Anecdote: I was flying during instrument training at night and took a laser strike from a small town about 30nm north of a class bravo airport (very large airline hub). When I reported it to approach, they basically closed all the northbound arrival/departure routes and started diverting traffic to the east and west so nobody would overfly the offender. Also, I got to watch a LOT of cop cars light up a minute or two later...

c3534l 8y ago
Pardon my ignorance, but what's a laser strike?
- BoorishBears 8y ago
  An attempt to blind aviators with a laser pointer
  - spydum 8y ago
    I’ve never understood this - aiming a laser at a vessel moving at over a hundred miles an hour many thousands of feet away seems incredibly harmless, unless you have one gigantic, powerful laser...
    - thaumaturgy 8y ago
      When the laser hits the cockpit glass, the whole panel lights up. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VshPGuKoa2Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VshPGuKoa2Q
      - AWildC182 8y ago
        That's probably the mildest case I've seen. When it happened to me the guy was about half the distance and it lit up the whole cockpit.
    - sokoloff 8y ago
      I've been hit twice by a ground-based laser. Both times the flashes were bright enough to be disruptive to my adaption to night vision and IMO reduced safety of flight temporarily. I called both into ATC. On one instance, I had the time to hang around and report the location quite accurately and saw the beginning of ground response of police (probably 15+ minutes, though). I wasn't able to stick around and learn the outcome. An EMS helicopter was lased a few months ago resulting in (I think temporary) injury to the crew and a delayed response to an EMS transport mission.
    - dreamcompiler 8y ago
      Portable lasers nowadays are very much powerful enough to temporarily disrupt a pilot's night vision. They also light up all the micro-scratches in the windshield, making it difficult to see out. It's extremely dangerous, which is why perpetrators get found and arrested quickly. And the penalties are quite steep.

c3534l 8y ago

Pardon my ignorance, but what's a laser strike?

BoorishBears 8y ago
An attempt to blind aviators with a laser pointer
- spydum 8y ago
  I’ve never understood this - aiming a laser at a vessel moving at over a hundred miles an hour many thousands of feet away seems incredibly harmless, unless you have one gigantic, powerful laser...
  - thaumaturgy 8y ago
    When the laser hits the cockpit glass, the whole panel lights up. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VshPGuKoa2Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VshPGuKoa2Q
    - AWildC182 8y ago
      That's probably the mildest case I've seen. When it happened to me the guy was about half the distance and it lit up the whole cockpit.
  - sokoloff 8y ago
    I've been hit twice by a ground-based laser. Both times the flashes were bright enough to be disruptive to my adaption to night vision and IMO reduced safety of flight temporarily. I called both into ATC. On one instance, I had the time to hang around and report the location quite accurately and saw the beginning of ground response of police (probably 15+ minutes, though). I wasn't able to stick around and learn the outcome. An EMS helicopter was lased a few months ago resulting in (I think temporary) injury to the crew and a delayed response to an EMS transport mission.
  - dreamcompiler 8y ago
    Portable lasers nowadays are very much powerful enough to temporarily disrupt a pilot's night vision. They also light up all the micro-scratches in the windshield, making it difficult to see out. It's extremely dangerous, which is why perpetrators get found and arrested quickly. And the penalties are quite steep.