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Here's a video of what a laser looks like from a helicopter pilots perspective. It's a lot more powerful than you think it might be. https://www.youtube.com/wa

• GrinningFool 12y ago
  I hate to say it, but... that's it? I could see it causing serious problems if someone hit the copter and held it at exactly the right position for it to cause continued glare. But that brief flash? maybe it loses something in video, but it seems less intense and far more transient than oncoming traffic w/ highbeams on a dark road .
  • cdash 12y ago
    Nothing is lost in the video as someone else has already commented on in this thread, CCDs are actually more sensitive than the human eye to lasers.
    • gnaffle 12y ago
      That's not really true at night though, CCD cameras can change their light sensitivity quickly, something human eyes can't do (after a bright flash, you'll lose your night vision up to several minutes).
  • gnaffle 12y ago
    Continued glared isn't even necessary, losing the night vision (a problem that the camera doesn't show) is the real problem. It's not likely to directly cause an accident, but it might very well be a contributing factor (for many or most accidents that do happen, each contributing factor has usually happened multiple times before without causing an accident).
• megablast 12y ago
  Firstly, they had to zoom in quite a bit to get that effect. Secondly, our eyes to not operate like a cameras sensor, it looks very different to the naked eye.