Green Laser Has DPD Pilots Seeing Red

[curtis22]

http://cbs11tv.com/local/local_story_201220910.html

"(CBS 11 News) DALLAS Police in Dallas are not amused by a possible prank that may have put the lives of two helicopter pilots in jeopardy.

The Dallas Police Department's Air One helicopter was on a routine patrol over a neighborhood in far north Dallas early Wednesday morning. That's when the helicopter's two pilots were "struck in the eyes with a green laser multiple times, causing spots and pain in each eye," according to a police report.

The police pilots were able to continue flying, and alerted officers on the ground.

"They went ahead and called a patrol element to go down there where the light was coming from, and they were able to identify who was pointing the light," said Sgt. Andy Harvey of the Dallas Police Department."

 

[chuck]

Oh great...that's in my general area, so the local government will probably overreact and outlaw all colored lights, or some such nonsense.

I know these aren't toys, and shouldn't be directed into people's eyes...but apparently not everyone does. :-(

I'm very glad the pilots are OK...

Stupid pranks like this just reflect badly on all of us enthusiasts.

-- Chuck Knight

 

[ks_physicist]

I read that story elsewhere, and just shook my head at the part where it said something like "...green lasers can temporarily or permanently damage pilots' eyes, unlike red lasers...".

:thinking:

 

[Daedal]

Unlike red... lol

Well... to the general public red simply means the 'buy it at wal-wart' 5mW laser.

Nevertheless, this is a very sad and horrible act, and will most probably worsen the way the general public see high-power lasers even further!

--DDL

 

[npkeith]

Pointing a laser at an airplane (or any other moving vehicle for that matter) is what I refer to as "Felony Stupid"

 

[Tropmonky]

geez, how lame.

"hey look, a heli, let me point my BRIGHT as all heck GREEN laser up at it"

Not to mention that DUH you see exactly where it's coming from!

Now it it were a IR high power laser they would have no clue where it was coming from, unless they have A FLIR system on that chopper, then you're screwed LOL.

I agree, pointing high power lasers around in public places is something that NOBODY should take lightly. When I have done so I'm sure to be careful. I live right near LAX airport and have to be careful of all the air traffic when I go point at night.

 

[Lew Fong]

This reminds me of the type of hysteria and knee-jerk reaction that always occur after a high-profile shooting. You can count on Congress or the locals to generate a spate of anti-gun bills soon thereafter, and all the rest of us end up paying the price for the actions of one nutcase. And, just like the gun issue, the press ended up displaying their ignorance of important technical issues that only laserheads really understand...just like the bayonet-lug ban, also called the Assault Weapons ban. That albatross was hung around our necks for ten years! What is going to happen when hand-held laser power increases to the point where they can be classified as real weapons? I wonder if the NRA will try to protect them based upon Second Amendment principles? :duh2:

Cheers All,

Lew

 

[Heruursciences]

Yeah tha't pretty frigging stupid! He could have distracted the pilot enough to crash it.

On a more interesting note, you could actually build a real laser _weapon_ for less than $1K using surplus/pm high power, output corrected diode laser bars of the type used in industrial platesetters, even better if you removed the bar and swapped optics and used those hi-cap Li-ion battery packs you could have a 60W hand held deathray light saber the size of a 4 D cell maglite!

 

[BIGIRON]

Lew, that would be the responsibility of the NLA.

 

[Lew Fong]

Lew, that would be the responsibility of the NLA.

:twothumbs Cute...but if you use the word "laser"...i.e., laser rifle, laser pistol, laser weapon, etc., then wouldn't the FDA still own the issue? Maybe they should just be called "Ray Guns"...just like Flash Gordon. Then the acronym would be NRGA.

Cheers!

 

[jbviau]

Sorry to stir the pot, but I have a hard time defending Joe Schmoe's right to own an assault weapon or, for that matter, a 60W "deathray." Anyway, I agree that local govt. might have a tendency to overreact to incidents like this one in Dallas. But, just out of curiosity, what do you all *think* should be the response? Anything beyond what the police did, i.e. find and arrest the offender?

 

[BIGIRON]

This could be a classic example of the attitude we gun guys have to deal with. "lasers don't lase people, people do". Deal with the offending individual, not the tool he misused.

My personal position is that he endangered the aircraft, crew and people on the ground just as if he'd fired a rifle at the aircraft.

 

[fixorater]

I feel like the best thing we can do as a community is do our best to help authorities deal with those that use lasers irresponsibly. We should also do our best to educate those around us as to the possible dangers of using lasers. This is becoming more and more important with inexpensive high powered lasers becoming increasingly available to the average person.

I don't know about you all but I find the idea that an 11yr old can fairly easily acquire a 100-200mW DPSS laser online a bit alarming. Especially since the ones that inexperienced folk are likely to purchase do not have the required FDA safety features, aperture caps, key activation, and delay to activate.