Terrorists use lasers to blind airline pilots

[Perfection]

I'd like to think that when security was sitting there, sipping coffee, they'd notice the 15-mile-long green beam. I could be wrong, but I do like to think that.

Umm, unless it's particularly foggy or dusty out, you can't see a laser beam.

 

[BasketCase]

Six incidents over four days and over a sample size of THOUSANDS of planes. That's not a terrorist. A terrorist would keep trying until he got a crash, we'd have seen a lot more reports than this--and all in ONE place.

 

[wilbill]

What kind of laser can remain focused enough to cause problems from 15 miles away? This would have to be a pretty sophisticated laser!

Not really. All lasers produce an output that is extremely collimated - the light waves are almost completely parallel - so they don't spread out like light from a light bulb.
The Apollo 11 astronauts left a 2 foot square mirror on the moon which is still in use to measure earth-moon distance. Scientists on earth bounce a laser beam off that 2x2 foot mirror and measure its return time.
Depending on the wavelength being used, a laser might have to be very strong or not especially strong to do damage at 15 miles.

Originally Posted by augurey
I'd like to think that when security was sitting there, sipping coffee, they'd notice the 15-mile-long green beam. I could be wrong, but I do like to think that.

Not all lasers emit green or red light. Some of the most commonly used industrial and medical lasers produce an invisible beam. As far as power is concerned, even a fairly weak laser beam entering the eye is focused by the eye's lens and can do far more damage than if left unfocused.

 

[wilbill]

Umm, unless it's particularly foggy or dusty out, you can't see a laser beam.

True. Even a "visible" wavelength laser beam moving through completely clean air would be invisible until it struck an object. The beam you see from your laser pointer is striking dust particles in the air.

 

[Jawz II]

Maybe it is a laser sighted stinger or RPG of some sort, you know, target the cockpit and you get if a impact occurs guarentied death

another cool theory, stingers dont have lasers, nor do RPGs, not to mention you cant fire upwards with a RPG


i dont think this is work of terrorists, it seems like an unusually ineffective way of bringing down a plane, i mean you gotta hit someones eye, that is 15 miles away, and is moving-fast..

there are way easier methods

there was some work done on lasers to blind people, that you would attach to your assault rifle, it was like a powerful laser that would "fan out" sorta like a shotgun blast, which would make it very easy to hit someones eye, but thats of course for close range, and would leave a person permanently blind, and those are of course illegal

 

[Pikachu]

i dont think this is work of terrorists, it seems like an unusually ineffective way of bringing down a plane, i mean you gotta hit someones eye, that is 15 miles away, and is moving-fast..

You even have to hit both eyes of both the pilot and the co-pilot at a critical moment to create a dangerous situation. Nobody aims that good, but even if someone should miraculously manage to pull this off, wouldn’t a pilot abort the landing if she suddenly was blinded? I can’t see how anybody could possibly manage to make a plane crash this way. This seems like a pathetic attempt to create a new scary urban myth.

 

[Mise]

This was in a Tom Clancy book, Clark and Chavez used a big ole laser to blind some Japanese pilots during landing, and they crashed the plane. I think terrorists read a lot of Clancy books.....he did a 9/11 thing too before 9/11 happened, but no one ever talks about it for some reason.

Maybe he got the idea from the terrorists, and wrote a book before they could be implemented in real life?

 

[~Corsair#01~]

All airline pilots should wear reflective sunglasses.
And gold necklaces, and backwards caps- for consistency.

 

[IglooDame]

The Russians have been trying stuff like this, even during the Yeltsin years. They successfully blinded a pilot off the Pacific coast some years ago.

That was my first thought, too.

Six incidents over four days and over a sample size of THOUSANDS of planes. That's not a terrorist. A terrorist would keep trying until he got a crash, we'd have seen a lot more reports than this--and all in ONE place.

I don't think we can rule one way or the other on the available evidence. Perhaps the terrorists are doing it in this way not necessarily to directly bring down a plane, but to get a massive (over)reaction from the Feds - attempting to regulate the higher-grade lasers, conducting house-to-house searches for lasers below airport approach vectors, fitting out pilots with goggles or cockpit windows with anti-laser coatings...

Or, perhaps it is a few particularly disturbed airline union mechanics or someone else hurt by the spate of bankruptcies and contract renegotiations.

 

[carlosMM]

I really can't help it: Can we PLEASE shut up Tom Clancy? No interviews, no books anymore - this is teh SECOND idea from a book of his that gets used in reality, kind of!

 

[Jawz II]

All airline pilots should wear reflective sunglasses.
And gold necklaces, and backwards caps- for consistency.

actually shades would eliminate or seriously reduce this "threat"

whoever wrote that original article must have had alterior motives or crap for brain

 

[Aphex_Twin]

In today's world planes fly by themselves and pilots just mend the controlls and if they want to, they can land it by themselves, but it's not strictly necessary.

To blind a pilot with a laser you would need a very large power source and a state-of-the-art pointing system (planes don't stay put). With the same resources, a smarter terrorist might think of building hundreds of simple bombs.

 

[North King]

To blind a pilot with a laser you would need a very large power source and a state-of-the-art pointing system (planes don't stay put). With the same resources, a smarter terrorist might think of building hundreds of simple bombs.

Indeed, it's not cost effective, nor, to put it rather coldbloodedly, is it dramatic enough.

 

[Jack the Ripper]

My science teacher flashed an airplane with his green laser once.

 

[Speedo]

not to mention you cant fire upwards with a RPG

Heh, tell that to the Somalians of "Blackhawk Down" fame.

This was in a Tom Clancy book, Clark and Chavez used a big ole laser to blind some Japanese pilots during landing, and they crashed the plane. I think terrorists read a lot of Clancy books.....he did a 9/11 thing too before 9/11 happened, but no one ever talks about it for some reason.

No. They used an extremely bright light, several million candle power IIRC, bright enough to instantly blind the pilots. Not a laser. They were very close to the airport, doing it when the aircraft were on final.

The book, btw, is "Debt of Honor," which also has the guy playing kamikaze into the capital building.

Why has no one mentioned them? Because they were old ideas, even when Clancy published them. Heck, the Soviets had the ability to flash our satellites with lasers (and may have done it once or twice?) to temporarily blind them.

 

[Jawz II]

Heh, tell that to the Somalians of "Blackhawk Down" fame

the somalis had modified their RPGs to shoot down choppers specificly

shoot a regular RPG toward the sky and youll burn your feet, legs and possibly your ass with the backblast

and to answer your next question, yes i do know everything

ps.tom clancy is an assclown

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[Sims2789]

Man, 6 times in 4 days, this is bad. Terrorists are also getting more high tech too using lasers.

It is never said that the terrorists are using lasers.

This (not North King's response, quote withing his quote) is probably another example of fearmongering producing conservative reastionaryism. But if it is terrorists then this is not good. Now, they'll have to ban all devices that produce light at airports except for laser pointers.

On a more serious note, it is a bad thing if this actually is terrorists. I have a friend whose mom works as a cargo loader at the airport. We should ban laser pointers at airports no matter what, though, since whether it is terrorism or not, it can be harmful to planes. I wonder where in the landing the incidences occured? If they didn't occur when the plane was close to the gate (and thus in a laser pointer's range) then I'd guess terrorism, since a kid couldn't get a laser that powerful. Otherwise I wouldn't get too worried but I'd investigate it nonetheless.

 

[Quasar1011]

the somalis had modified their RPGs to shoot down choppers specificly

shoot a regular RPG toward the sky and youll burn your feet, legs and possibly your ass with the backblast

and to answer your next question, yes i do know everything

Including how to spell "specifically" ?

 

[Jawz II]

yey you, you must be so much smarter than me

you can spell better than me in your native tongue

english is only the 3rd language i learned, out of 4


and i do know how to use a spellchecker or a dictionary if i cared enough about what the likes of you think (spell nazis), i guess im not anal enough

 

[Speedo]

the somalis had modified their RPGs to shoot down choppers specificly

shoot a regular RPG toward the sky and youll burn your feet, legs and possibly your ass with the backblast

Oh no, they plenty of backblast danger from it. It's even addressed in the book.

Besides, I guess only Somalis know how to modify RPGs, right?