When these were introduced to the military 25 yrs ago they were Immediately named "Ronalds"
Ronald Raygun
Zuhal
There has been a lot of talk in the news recently in Oz about people pointing high powered lasers at aircraft.
This is to distract the pilot.
It has been done at quite a few airports.
Finally, one person has been nabbed... In fact it was a friend of mine's boyfriend - who was piloting a police helicopter. He managed to spotlight the sourse and "park" nearby (on a football field) and get the local police to meet him.. and the person was arrested and charged.
He now faces 2 years in prison.
When the next bill comes through, it will be between 2 to 14 years - dependant on the strength of the laser.
She told me, she felt sorry for the guy who was only 19..
I told her... how sorry would you feel for the guy, if your boyfriend crashed the helicopter and died, due to not being able to see...
Teenage pranks are sometimes fun.. until someone dies...
When these were introduced to the military 25 yrs ago they were Immediately named "Ronalds"
Ronald Raygun
Zuhal
This might sound weird, but a lo-hong time ago, I seem to remember hearing about an F104 Starfighter that was brought down over Germany by somebody firing a meatball at it from his garden...
I fly planes for Flybe and recently there have been a few airport-specific notices about "unauthorised laser lights" being pointed at aircraft - there's not much we can do except report it straight away, but if you're trying to fly at night and some complete moron* dazzles you with a laser, it would be very hard to see anything even inside the cockpit let alone outside it. High-powered searchlights have the same effect and they are always noted in the airfield information with a position, time of operation etc.
*being very polite about what is an abysmally (insert swearing here) stupid thing to do.
I remember chatting to an airline pilot a while back, and he was saying that in early November each year, some of the neds in Aberdeen would find rockets at the planes landing at Aberdeen airport. Apparently there are some housing estates on the flight path close to Aberdeen that get rather annoyed with all the planes coming into land. Hence in the past they used to fire rockets at the planes coming into land.
I don't know if this is an urban myth, but it sounds reasonably believable?
Taking it a bit further...
The pilot - along with a police crew, turned up on his doorstep - his dad answered the door and when his dad was told what was going on - he went ape at his son, the laser was handed over and the dad was in full support of the police.
He might not get the max 2 years prison, and I am in 2 minds as to what I think.
One side of me sais "he has certainly learnt his lesson", and his dad is not a "well done son, he he" type of dad. I do not think, given what I know so far, that he is likely to do it again... So problem solved.
On the bigger picture, this is happening a resonable amount of times, and sometimes directed at passenger aircraft - which could ulimately be rather bad.
So should a message be sent and the maximum sentance gone for, or should the individual human element come into play - as in, in this case, no harm was done and the lesson might have been learnt?
From what I've heard on the news of late there are plans to restrict use of laser pointers in Australia.
"Under the laws, all laser pointers will be banned from public places without a reasonable explanation, with a penalty of up to two years' jail.
Possession of class three and four laser pointers - or high-powered lasers above one milliwatt - would be illegal without a prohibited-weapons permit, with the maximum penalty being 14 years' jail." Helicopter laser attack: man charged - National - smh.com.au
Laws to tackle rise in laser attacks - National - theage.com.au <-- this articles reports that the silly nuts are using them at footy games as well...
I have been at a dance a several years back where one was used on the dancers. It took me a while to sus out what it was. My first thought was that my partner had little red lights under her dress (the laser did not show up very well on her clothes) - my second was "How is it moving around so freely?" - then the penny dropped and one later and two guys disappeared before I could get to them.
There have been several cases of successful prosecutions for this. The most recent locally was when an otherwise respectable businessman got fed up with the constant low-flying jets from Leuchars airbase, and was fined £400.
The Courier: Taking you to the heart of Tayside and Fife
If you google "laser, aircraft, criminal" you'll see it's worldwide problem.
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