4 ms·

Who are those people? Some actual/suspected foreign agents trying to interfere with the military air traffic/impact morale of the aircrews? Or mere hooligans?

tasogare 5y ago
Having read the news on a French website few days ago, suspicion goes to the usual suspects.
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
  Do you have some specific group in mind? Someone needs to be either extremely stupid or demoralized to do such things.
  - lbriner 5y ago
    It's happened a load of times in the UK. I think often kids or young adults who haven't really thought things through and just think it is funny or "edgy" to their mates. The distance to target can give a false sense of safety to the perp. so interesting to see this article. I can't imagine the look on that person's face when the police knocked at the door!
azalemeth 5y ago
It's overwhelmingly likely to be hooligans. Pointing a (visible) laser pointer is at a pilot is a great way of pissing them off, and is dangerous, but fundamentally isn't a great military weapon. Many military nations have signed the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons [1] which explicitly forbids attacks of this sort. If you were a rouge state, doing this with a far IR CO2 laser is (a) more likely to have a "military effect" (big bang) and (b) harder to trace and not visible (think Cuba syndrome). For what it's worth, this is a good application of military technology with no loss of life. Firing lasers at aeroplanes is a Bad Thing™. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Blinding_Laser_Weapons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Blinding_Laser_Wea...
- nradov 5y ago
  The Chinese military has multiple types of blinding laser weapons. https://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-4-blinding-laser-weapons-that-china-has-developed-2018-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-4-blinding-las...
  - Freak_NL 5y ago
    >> If you were a rouge state […] > The Chinese military […] They would, ostensibly, fall under the header of 'rouge state', but usually people just say 'red'.
    - littlestymaar 5y ago
      it's probably a typo for "rogue" state
- openasocket 5y ago
  Yeah, using blinding weapons on planes in a war scenario isn't very viable, treaty or not. Arguably blinding weapons could be helpful against infantry or armor, but not really against aircraft. If you're close enough to be able to shine a laser at an aircraft you're also more than close enough to fire a missile at it. Far more likely to have lethal effects, better range, plus you don't have to worry about your weapon being defeated by fog (to a degree if you're using IR-guided missiles). This is really limited to these "gray zone" conflicts in a non-wartime environment, and possibly when waging guerrilla warfare.
paganel 5y ago
> Who are those people? Maybe regular posters to /r/unexpectedgwennhadu/? On a more serious note, the Bretagne independence movement used to be quite strong (relatively speaking) until the mid- to late-1990s, I can see some people still not being happy with the Paris administration sending airplanes upon their lands.
- baud147258 5y ago
  though that air base had been in continuous activity since the 1950s, so it's not really a new one
rjsw 5y ago
Saw a documentary where drug smugglers between Morocco and Spain used a laser to try to blind the police helicopter that was tracking them.
jokoon 5y ago
People who would not really know a laser would have such a long range. I guess people just do this because they don't know it's dangerous. I admit doing it once when I was a kid, but for like 10 seconds, but you never really know if you are pointing exactly at the aircraft, since it's very far away. I learned years ago that I did something illegal... Of course, people who got caught are pointing those lasers long enough for those camera to spot them. I guess that a loooot of people try this, but don't do it long enough, so they never get caught, and also since most aircrafts have no way to find who did it.
- wolverine876 5y ago
  Of all things to point your laser at, why an airplane?
  - Nextgrid 5y ago
    I guess it could make a good target to test the range of the laser if you're not aware of the dangers. There isn't much else in the sky that would reflect it and pointing it at buildings instead may not be visible due to all the light pollution around from the streets as opposed to the dark sky behind an airplane at night.
    - albert_e 5y ago
      does a laser make a bright spot on the airplane that is ?visible to the person back on the ground?
      - Nextgrid 5y ago
        No idea, I haven't tried it (and not planning to) but I can understand the curiosity to find out.
      - jokoon 5y ago
        No, for several reasons: The ray is not "straight", it has a slight angle, meaning the dot is larger and larger when distance increases, so it's less luminous (but still very luminous, enough to blind you temporarily). It's also the reason why it has way more probability to "hit" somebody's eye. You can spot an airplane, but you can't really see secondary light source on it, it's just too far away. Even if a laser is a lot of light, the dot is not emitting enough for the naked eye to see any difference. The light from a laser is directed, meaning all its photons goes in one direction, hence why it will blind an eye. But when it hits a surface, the photons bounce in all directions, and thus those secondary photons land in your eye in lower quantity because they're spread.

tasogare 5y ago

Having read the news on a French website few days ago, suspicion goes to the usual suspects.

hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
Do you have some specific group in mind? Someone needs to be either extremely stupid or demoralized to do such things.
- lbriner 5y ago
  It's happened a load of times in the UK. I think often kids or young adults who haven't really thought things through and just think it is funny or "edgy" to their mates. The distance to target can give a false sense of safety to the perp. so interesting to see this article. I can't imagine the look on that person's face when the police knocked at the door!

azalemeth 5y ago

It's overwhelmingly likely to be hooligans. Pointing a (visible) laser pointer is at a pilot is a great way of pissing them off, and is dangerous, but fundamentally isn't a great military weapon. Many military nations have signed the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons [1] which explicitly forbids attacks of this sort. If you were a rouge state, doing this with a far IR CO2 laser is (a) more likely to have a "military effect" (big bang) and (b) harder to trace and not visible (think Cuba syndrome). For what it's worth, this is a good application of military technology with no loss of life. Firing lasers at aeroplanes is a Bad Thing™. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Blinding_Laser_Weapons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Blinding_Laser_Wea...

nradov 5y ago
The Chinese military has multiple types of blinding laser weapons. https://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-4-blinding-laser-weapons-that-china-has-developed-2018-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-4-blinding-las...
- Freak_NL 5y ago
  >> If you were a rouge state […] > The Chinese military […] They would, ostensibly, fall under the header of 'rouge state', but usually people just say 'red'.
  - littlestymaar 5y ago
    it's probably a typo for "rogue" state
openasocket 5y ago
Yeah, using blinding weapons on planes in a war scenario isn't very viable, treaty or not. Arguably blinding weapons could be helpful against infantry or armor, but not really against aircraft. If you're close enough to be able to shine a laser at an aircraft you're also more than close enough to fire a missile at it. Far more likely to have lethal effects, better range, plus you don't have to worry about your weapon being defeated by fog (to a degree if you're using IR-guided missiles). This is really limited to these "gray zone" conflicts in a non-wartime environment, and possibly when waging guerrilla warfare.

paganel 5y ago

> Who are those people? Maybe regular posters to /r/unexpectedgwennhadu/? On a more serious note, the Bretagne independence movement used to be quite strong (relatively speaking) until the mid- to late-1990s, I can see some people still not being happy with the Paris administration sending airplanes upon their lands.

baud147258 5y ago
though that air base had been in continuous activity since the 1950s, so it's not really a new one

rjsw 5y ago

Saw a documentary where drug smugglers between Morocco and Spain used a laser to try to blind the police helicopter that was tracking them.

jokoon 5y ago

People who would not really know a laser would have such a long range. I guess people just do this because they don't know it's dangerous. I admit doing it once when I was a kid, but for like 10 seconds, but you never really know if you are pointing exactly at the aircraft, since it's very far away. I learned years ago that I did something illegal... Of course, people who got caught are pointing those lasers long enough for those camera to spot them. I guess that a loooot of people try this, but don't do it long enough, so they never get caught, and also since most aircrafts have no way to find who did it.

wolverine876 5y ago
Of all things to point your laser at, why an airplane?
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  I guess it could make a good target to test the range of the laser if you're not aware of the dangers. There isn't much else in the sky that would reflect it and pointing it at buildings instead may not be visible due to all the light pollution around from the streets as opposed to the dark sky behind an airplane at night.
  - albert_e 5y ago
    does a laser make a bright spot on the airplane that is ?visible to the person back on the ground?
    - Nextgrid 5y ago
      No idea, I haven't tried it (and not planning to) but I can understand the curiosity to find out.
    - jokoon 5y ago
      No, for several reasons: The ray is not "straight", it has a slight angle, meaning the dot is larger and larger when distance increases, so it's less luminous (but still very luminous, enough to blind you temporarily). It's also the reason why it has way more probability to "hit" somebody's eye. You can spot an airplane, but you can't really see secondary light source on it, it's just too far away. Even if a laser is a lot of light, the dot is not emitting enough for the naked eye to see any difference. The light from a laser is directed, meaning all its photons goes in one direction, hence why it will blind an eye. But when it hits a surface, the photons bounce in all directions, and thus those secondary photons land in your eye in lower quantity because they're spread.