Man sentenced for lasering plane with 118 passengers aboard

[DigitalHermit]

A simple Google search would have kept your mouth shut from false information. I said shipwrecked, or for SOS signal

Source

 

(For once I dropped the '/joke' and I got misunderstood...)

[CowsGoRoar]

(For once I dropped the '/joke' and I got misunderstood...)

Well then, I obviously meant if it was for a good reason.

[mr.skyrim_pc]

How do they find out who did it?

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

 

Source : http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/10/man-who-lasered-boeing-737-gets-a-mere-4-months-community-detention/

 

The punishment seems very lenient considering how severe others have been punished for similar stuff, and considering how dangerous it actually is.  Are there anti-laser glasses/windshields they can use or is there no such thing?

 

This is how lasers look to pilots when used on them from the ground :

 

I'd call the 5 microwatt per square centimeter quite distracting. let's do some math.

average green laser has a beam angle of about 2 mRad, and I'll consider that the beam starts at a diameter of 0 for simplicity, as it will have little effect on the final numbers. assuming a the laser outputs 5mw of green, it would be dispersed across .1 square meters to produce such a distraction

that is a beam radius of 0.17 meters, which would be achieved at around 170 meters. 

based on this math, I think the greatest concern has to be for helicpoter pilots, which as far as I know lack autopilot, along with landing or taking off airplanes.

I think my math is right here, but feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

[d3sl91]

Interesting read:

 

http://www.lasersafetyfacts.com/4/

[Psykomantis00]

so youre telling me this dude pointed one of those tiny laser pointers up in the sky and sniped a plane with it? man this dude probs couldnt do that again in his lifetime, if he tried...

He pointed a high powered lazer at an airplane. 

 

http://www.wickedlasers.com/

[Swndlr]

He pointed a high powered lazer at an airplane. 

 

http://www.wickedlasers.com/

i see now... dear god this dude must have been bored af on that fine day, unless he did it on purpose. i wouldnt know, im too lazy to read the damn article FMLFMLFML.

[thekeemo]

Do you understand how that works? When you fly at night you won't be able to see.

not quite

[AlwaysFSX]

not quite

 

 

A one-way mirror, one-way glass, or two-way glass is a mirror that is partially reflective and partially transparent. When one side of the mirror is brightly lit and the other is dark, it allows viewing from the darkened side but not vice versa.

If the inside is brighter than the outside, you can't see outside.

[thekeemo]

If the inside is brighter than the outside, you can't see outside.

got it

[dalekphalm]

 

Source : http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/10/man-who-lasered-boeing-737-gets-a-mere-4-months-community-detention/

 

The punishment seems very lenient considering how severe others have been punished for similar stuff, and considering how dangerous it actually is.  Are there anti-laser glasses/windshields they can use or is there no such thing?

 

This is how lasers look to pilots when used on them from the ground :

 

Hi there, can I suggest that in the future, you add a bit more detail to your news post? You should at the very least post what the sentence was, and explain a bit better what it is that he did.

 

Explanation of what went on please?

 

What's lasering? What's the punishment?

Shining a laser into the cockpit of a plane or helicopter. RIDICULOUSLY DANGEROUS!

 

How do you manage to aim your laser at  a tiny moving target which is least likely to be in your line of sight from your point of view?

The plane was landing. If you live near an airport, you'd know that they can get pretty big when taking off or landing. Big enough that you'd probably be able to hit it with the laser at least for a second or two.

 

Pointing strong lasers at aircraft

It can be distracting, and can cause accidents

 

People are arrested and even jailed for these kind of things

Yep, its extremely dangerous. It could easily cause a mid-air collision during take-off or landing, or could straight up just cause the aircraft to crash.

 

so youre telling me this dude pointed one of those tiny laser pointers up in the sky and sniped a plane with it? man this dude probs couldnt do that again in his lifetime, if he tried...

The plane was landing, so it's much easier. He hit the cockpit for 30 seconds, which is doable.

 

Lose billions for people who can't afford it > get bonuses.

Point a laser at a plane + don't have money for expensive lawyers > go to jail.

LOGIC

Actually it's extremely logical. Shining a laser into the cockpit could easily cause the plane to crash, killing everyone on board. They use very harsh sentencing because of how massive the potential damage can be. What do you think would happen if a Boeing 747 crashed into a city? 9/11-style casualties are entirely possible from such a crash. If the plane actually crashed, he'd likely get charged with manslaughter (For like 300 people) at the very least.

 

I'd call the 5 microwatt per square centimeter quite distracting. let's do some math.

average green laser has a beam angle of about 2 mRad, and I'll consider that the beam starts at a diameter of 0 for simplicity, as it will have little effect on the final numbers. assuming a the laser outputs 5mw of green, it would be dispersed across .1 square meters to produce such a distraction

that is a beam radius of 0.17 meters, which would be achieved at around 170 meters. 

based on this math, I think the greatest concern has to be for helicpoter pilots, which as far as I know lack autopilot, along with landing or taking off airplanes.

I think my math is right here, but feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Indeed, the risk to a plane actually flying up at normal altitudes is quite small (though not entirely removed). It also depends on what kind of laser it is, whether it is attached to anything (For example, a laser sight attached to a rifle with a scope would be much more dangerous, as it would be easier to aim the laser), and just generally how easy the laser itself is to aim. A laser pointer would be quite difficult to aim.

[bob345]

only stupid people do this

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8btZ2y6cmRQ

[FIXXX]

Actually it's extremely logical. Shining a laser into the cockpit could easily cause the plane to crash, killing everyone on board. They use very harsh sentencing because of how massive the potential damage can be. What do you think would happen if a Boeing 747 crashed into a city? 9/11-style casualties are entirely possible from such a crash. If the plane actually crashed, he'd likely get charged with manslaughter (For like 300 people) at the very least.

 

 

Oh re-e -e -e -eally? Just from the economics of the issue - one is potential - other is actual. So actual damage is less worthy of prosecution than potential? 

Anyway - we all know the world is not fair - still, I feel that pointing this out is important.

[dalekphalm]

only stupid people do this

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8btZ2y6cmRQ

Especially for a Police Helicopter, that has the high-end optics to literally zoom in on your house. That guy in that video is a dumbass lol.

 

 

Oh re-e -e -e -eally? Just from the economics of the issue - one is potential - other is actual. So actual damage is less worthy of prosecution than potential? 

Anyway - we all know the world is not fair - still, I feel that pointing this out is important.

Well, yes. The world isn't black and white. If I steal a pen from Staples, that is an actual damage and an actual crime, but it should rightly so have a far less severe punishment then shining a laser into a cockpit.

 

Now with that in mind, I'm not saying that your example of Corporate irresponsibility should go unpunished. I do believe that the wallstreet type execs who lost millions and billions of other people's money should go to jail too.

 

But the severity of shining a laser into a cockpit should NOT be downplayed. They're BOTH worthy of prosecution. It's not some "competition" where only one of  the crimes must be punished.

[dizmo]

How do you manage to aim your laser at  a tiny moving target which is least likely to be in your line of sight from your point of view?

 

i really wonder how they found the guy with the laser than the pilot lost the control of the wheel in air? and crashed into a cloud full of naked pictures? and all the naked pictures were made by hollywood star? that's why he got sentenced? the only way it would make sense...

Well there's this thing called landing...it requires quite a bit of focus.

[Richard Burton]

I feel this problem could be fixed by using mirrored oneway glass

uhmm, that has that downside of making your windows only allow a small percentage of light through, impinging on their ability to be... well... windows

[SirRoderick]

uhmm, that has that downside of making your windows only allow a small percentage of light through, impinging on their ability to be... well... windows

Now EVERY flight is a night flight

[vikeyev]

This is how lasers look to pilots when used on them from the ground :

 

That is actually dependent on the laser. For example, here in Australia we have had massive media beat ups over the tiny little pissy lasers you get at the $2 shop and how "it could make a plane crash". Those things are so weak you can't even shine it to the end of my street let alone up to a plane.

My brother on the other hand has a laser so powerful, he got his friend to go drive out to point vernon, while he sat on the pier (a distance of about 6km - 9km), called him, had him park up on the point and managed to aim it through the windscreen and illuminate his entire car. That thing would be dangerous as hell if aimed at a landing pilot.

Edit: or a moving vehicle of just about any kind now that I think about it.

[dalekphalm]

That is actually dependent on the laser. For example, here in Australia we have had massive media beat ups over the tiny little pissy lasers you get at the $2 shop and how "it could make a plane crash". Those things are so weak you can't even shine it to the end of my street let alone up to a plane.

My brother on the other hand has a laser so powerful, he got his friend to go drive out to point vernon, while he sat on the pier (a distance of about 6km - 9km), called him, had him park up on the point and managed to aim it through the windscreen and illuminate his entire car. That thing would be dangerous as hell if aimed at a landing pilot.

Edit: or a moving vehicle of just about any kind now that I think about it.

Keep in mind that even a lower powered laser will have the light amplified and diffused all throughout the cockpit of an aircraft. Though I'm sure after a few hundred meters, it will become far too weak to do even that. There is still a (small) risk even with the weak-sauce Dollar Store ones though.

[Trik'Stari]

I have a green dot laser for one of my guns and it is hella bright, but I'd still like to know how in fuck he'd managed to aim it into the cockpit of a moving plane, seriously. Not to mention how they knew where he was, and how they knew he specifically had the laser. Unless the plane was close to the ground or something.

 

Keep in mind that even a lower powered laser will have the light amplified and diffused all throughout the cockpit of an aircraft. Though I'm sure after a few hundred meters, it will become far too weak to do even that. There is still a (small) risk even with the weak-sauce Dollar Store ones though.

 

Green lasers tend to be a lot more powerful than red lasers, I don't know why, but they are brighter during the day, and they don't have as much spread over a distance

[dalekphalm]

I have a green dot laser for one of my guns and it is hella bright, but I'd still like to know how in fuck he'd managed to aim it into the cockpit of a moving plane, seriously. Not to mention how they knew where he was, and how they knew he specifically had the laser. Unless the plane was close to the ground or something.

 

 

Green lasers tend to be a lot more powerful than red lasers, I don't know why, but they are brighter during the day, and they don't have as much spread over a distance

Must be due to the type of chemicals/technology used by the laser itself?

 

As for this specific incident, the plane was landing, so it was close to the ground. As for how they found him? Well he was probably being a dumb jackass and probably kept playing with the laser all the way until the police came to the location he was at. How they found him specifically? He still had the laser on his person, and admitted to using it (though denied aiming at the plane). They might have had a Police Helicopter home in on him using IR and/or Thermal optics.

[Scheer]

The article says he had it aimed at the cockpit for 30 seconds... seems amazing he was able to do that while it was moving.

 

Also, the demo picture is a YAG laser, who the hell has a YAG laser laying around they can point at a plane? lol

[Berkut99]

I'd have to make some assumptions about this of course, but I think it will get the point across. First things first: during wartime shining a laser with the intention to blind someone is considered a serious enough offense to be listed as a war crime under the Protocol IV of the Convention of Certain Conventional Weapons as ratified by 103 countries in 1998. I think that's a good place to start as to how serious something like this could be taken.

 

Depending on the power of the green laser pointer used of course, at that wavelength and at higher powers even a glancing reflection has the ability to cause permanent blindness. Considering how easy it is to get your hands on lasers outputting >1 watt of power thanks to websites like Wicked Lasers, there would be no reason to count out that the laser used could have been one of these just as easily as it could have been something weaker. There would be no way of knowing for sure.

 

Disregarding the idea that attempting to cause a pilot to go blind puts hundereds of people at risk, depending on the civilian aircraft there is a chance of triggering built in laser warning recievers for active countermeasures, often fitted on Isreali passenger aircraft for obvious reasons. Triggering such a false alarm could cause major panic and would force the pilot to make a decision that could also endanger passengers.

 

Ignorance of the consequences is never an excuse for personal judgement like this. I think the punishment was maybe too harsh, but the possible consequences are also very far reaching. I don't know what possesses people to do things like this, but it's really hard for me to take pity on someone who does it.

 

Also, I am biased as a former light aircraft pilot. I figure it's only fair to put that out there.

[Trik'Stari]

Must be due to the type of chemicals/technology used by the laser itself?

 

As for this specific incident, the plane was landing, so it was close to the ground. As for how they found him? Well he was probably being a dumb jackass and probably kept playing with the laser all the way until the police came to the location he was at. How they found him specifically? He still had the laser on his person, and admitted to using it (though denied aiming at the plane). They might have had a Police Helicopter home in on him using IR and/or Thermal optics.

What a moron. I do remember hearing something about the green wavelength some how better for a laser than the wavelength for red light.

[Colonel_Gerdauf]

 I do remember hearing something about the green wavelength some how better for a laser than the wavelength for red light.

 

It has to do with the sensitivity of colors to the human eyes. It takes a lot of theory to fully explain, but let me simplify this as best as I can.

 

Our eyes can see three main colors: red, green, and blue. This results in three cones of light, which is where the RGB additive color gamut comes from. The arrangement is not arbitrary; it relates to the position of the cones in the color spectrum. As "green" lies in between "red" and "blue", it covers the widest range of the spectrum. That makes us see more shades of green than we see shades of red or blue. It is also why, on a camera sensor, there are 2 pigments of green light per pixel, where red and blue only get one each (this is called a Bayer Filter).

 

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