Laser Injures Delta Pilot's Eye

stormfish writes "The Washington Times is reporting that laser light from an unknown source injured a pilot's eye as he was flying a Boeing 737 from Dallas to Salt Lake City. A 5 milliwatt laser pointer is strong enough to damage a person's eye, and stronger laser's are not that hard to come by. Unfortunately, having pilots wear colored laser safety glasses would be impractical as that would make it impossible to interpret the colored symbols on paper maps and cockpit displays."

Well..

[Anonymous Coward]

... at least we know the laser wasn't fired by GI-JOE or COBRA.

Sharks

[Anonymous Coward]

Did anyone think to check the frickin' sharks in the Great Salt Lake?

Oh the irony

[BabyDave]

Nothing for you to see here.

Caution!

[shawn(at)fsu]

Do not look at laser with remaining eye.

How many times do we need to tell people that

Ha...

[c0dedude]

Thinkgeek [thinkgeek.com] wanted for questioning.

Hmm...

[Raagshinnah]

I, for one, welcome our new flying shark overlords

*cringes in terror*

BÖC

[Anonymous Coward]

Blue Oyster Cult must have been touring Salt Lake City and just started Godzilla as they were landing.

So, what you're really saying is...

[freeze128]

The goggles do nothing!

Hmm

[c0dedude]

Well, if the Washington Times says it, it must be true!

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[Mr Guy]

I hearby declare the parent post to be a threat to National Security! You can't just go around posting links to dangerous things on the web! Think of the chaos! Think of the humanity! What about the CHILDREN! [opticalres.com]

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[hhlost]

Hell, we could invade all the countries who might be trying to obtain them. But let's start with the ones that have oil.

Re:Probably going to only increase

[hoggoth]

> using multiple lasers at different frequencies, or perhaps by frequency cycling.

Wasn't this a line from an episode of Star Trek?

Re:Friggin' lasers attached to their heads!

[Anonymous Coward]

like, for example, the sun?

The Department of Homeland Security has just released a warning of a potential new tactic that is possibly being used by terrorists. This tactic involves pointing at the sun and yelling "Oh My! What is THAT?!". Anyone in the visinity who looks will be bombarded with "sun beams" which could cause blindness, serious injury or even death.

Re:"Colored laser safety glasses"

[Anonymous Coward]

Having pilots wear coloured safety glasses wouldn't be impractical, it would be impossible; the only colour that would block all laser frequencies is black.

Finally, a use for my Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses!

Right out of a Clancy Book...

[maybeHere]

I think it was "Debt of Honour" where CIA operatives near the airport use lasers to blind japanese (don't ask) AWACS pilots, making them crash their planes. Coincidentally, that book ends with a airliner being crashed into the White House. Soo, what does this mean? It's obvious - Tom Clancy is providing The Terrorists (tm) with ideas and needs to be put in jail ASAP!

No more ecstacy for the pilots........

[ARRRLovin]

"The plane's two pilots reported that the Boeing 737 had been five miles from the airport when they saw a laser beam inside the cockpit, said officials familiar with government reports of the Sept. 22 incident."

Next thing you know, they're smearing vaporub on each other and are struggling to find words to describe how awesome their faces feel right now.

Re:"Colored laser safety glasses"

[Tackhead]

> Having pilots wear coloured safety glasses wouldn't be impractical, it would be impossible; the only colour that would block all laser frequencies is black.

Simple. Equip every pilot with a pair of Joo-Janta 2000 Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses, that turn totally black at the first indication of danger! Joo-Janta 2000 Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses: Another fine product of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation!

Re:Sigh...another reference to terrorism

[LurkerXXX]

How are they going to make a 'laser protective windshield"? You can't just filter one frequency out and call it safe. Lasers do come in more than one wavelength. If they spend the money, they can shine whatever wavelength they want at you. What are you expecting? The captain to order the crew to 'modulate the shield frequency', and if that doesn't work, 'reverse the polarity'?

quotes

[toolshed7]

Did they use the finger quotes when they used the word laser?

Navigator

[WPIDalamar]

I bet the navigator sitting behind the pilot is hiding his laser keychain about now.

oops.

Re:Hmm...

[MustardMan]

Flying crocodile is clearly superior.

Note to mods on crack: this comment is neither offtopic nor a troll. If you don't get an obscure joke, try leaving it alone and modding someone up instead of trying to suppress everything you dont "get"

Re:Sigh...another reference to terrorism

[spoonyfork]

Are we going to assume that everytime something happens to someone, a terrorist is behind it? I for one am tired of our leaders trying to make us afraid.

Why do you hate freedom?

Re:Put on your tinfoil hats...

[magefile]

I think you mean frisking ... unless ... no, that's too horrible to even consider.

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[VC]

Stay where you are, we'll be over in black vans to pick you up in a couple of minutes..

Re:Sigh...another reference to terrorism

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course. Someone must be blamed and the "terrorists" are easy targets. It's like the God fallacy... Because we have nothing to explain it a single "supreme being" must have done it.

Are you saying God is a Terrorist?

LDS

[Anonymous Coward]

We need to add Laser Detection Systems to the planes, that will fire a laser back in the same direction as the incoming one, a little offset so as to hit the terrorist in the eye. An eye for an eye.

Re:Sigh...another reference to terrorism

[deadweight]

Ask the residents of Soddom and Gommorah!

Re:Oh the irony

[MustardMan]

I'm not going to RTFA now, but when I get home, I'll look it over, write up a summary, go through it with a fine-toothed comb, cross the t's and dot the...
...
...

lowercase J's

Re:Hmm...

[MustardMan]

Wow, slashdot reverse psychology really does work. Almost every post that says "mod me down if you want" gets modded up, and I say my post is not offtopic (which clearly it isn't) and within a few minutes, it gets modded offtopic.

Now THIS post is offtopic, so mod me down if you want to.

Now that I've said to mod me down, I will most likely get modded up.

UH-OH, now that I've said both I'll both be modded down AND modded up, what will the predictible little mouthbreather slashdot mods do? I wonder if their heads will explode. Now that I've insulted the mods, I'm SURE to get modded down, but hell I've got karma to burn.

Re:Sigh...another reference to terrorism

[Fizzlewhiff]

That can be easily changed. The FAA just needs to require commercial pilots to have a high midichlorian count. They wouldn't need to see they runway lights then.

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[gurps_npc]

Better start with the ones that have oil that we sold lasers to.

They actually saw the BEAM?

[Dr. Stavros]

they saw a laser beam inside the cockpit

Now, please let me be the first pedant to point out that for them to have actually seen the beam inside the cockpit, then it must have been helluva dusty or smokey in there. Who were the pilots? Cheech and Chong?

Re:Sigh...another reference to terrorism

[BlueTooth]

Laser protected wind shield: a piece of metal. Commerical airlines are flown almost entirely on intruments, the glass windshield is there for taxing around the runway. Even landing is starting to be done "by wire" ... I think the true solution is to just make it so the pilot doesn't need to see. If he gets hit while taxing, no big deal. That's what co-pilots are for.

... and stop calling me Shirley!

[LightStruk]

How about getting rid of plane food, since in the slight chance you get a bad batch, the entire crew can get diarrhea and not be able to land the plane.

OMG! I totally saw a documentary [imdb.com] where this happened! The disease the crew got was terrible! The Physician Dr. Rumack described it this way:

"It starts with a slight fever and dryness of the throat. When the virus penetrates the red blood cells, the victim becomes dizzy, begins to experience an itchy rash, then the poison goes to work on the central nervous system, severe muscle spasms followed by the inevitable grueling. At this point, the entire digestive system collapses accompanied by uncontrollable flatulence... until finally, the poor bastard is reduced to a quivering wasted piece of jelly."

Attndnt : Excuse me sir, there's been a little problem in the cockpit ...
Striker : The cockpit ... what is it?
Attndnt : It's the little room in the front of the plane where the pilots sit, but that's not important now.

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[FLEB]

-- There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.

Soap, ballot, jury, ammo... LASER!

Re:Class IIIa lasers don't cause permanent injury

[Anonymous Coward]

CAUTION: DO NOT LOOK INTO LASER WITH REMAINING EYE

Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

Re:Sigh...another reference to terrorism

[quantaman]

I have to say as a Canadian I wasn't really concerned about this whole terrorist thing before, but then I read this

Pandagon: Terrorists Could Infiltrate Hockey

OMG!!! They could be anywhere!!

Quick mobilize the military, alert the RCMP, defend the crease^H^H^Hborder!!!

Before it's too late we need to put those terrorists in the box! Remember if the NHL season doesn't start the terrorists have already won!

Re:I've seen this too -- it happened to me.

[serjinn]

No it has nothing to do with the energy. It's actually quite simple:

green = Rebels
red = Imperials

Clearly you were attacked by one of the good guys.

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[BasilBrush]

Potential future Darwin Award nominee. Investigating the effects of lasers by looking directly into the beam.

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[oreilco]

Getting the lasers might be easy, but training the Sharks to aim at the frickin' aircraft is not so easy.

Re:Laser pointers not a risk to aircraft

[ackthpt]

Actually, that's Executive Orders. Not Debt of honor.

Actually it is Debt of Honor.

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[Mignon]

we'll be over in black vans

Which ones? These? [vans.com] These? [vans.com] Or these? [vans.com] Good idea. That way they won't hear you coming.

simple solution

[nusratt]

"He noted that incidents of lasers being directed at commercial airliners during takeoff and landings have raised fears that "this in fact may be a new form of terrorism.
Lasers are easily obtainable and can be self-manufactured weapons in the terrorist arsenal, which essentially can effect a soft-kill solution and leave virtually no detectable evidence."

(Sounds a lot like file-trading.)

No problem.
Just pass another law.

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[freqres]

No, I think he meant this one [ehobbies.com].

Re:Class IIIa lasers don't cause permanent injury

[Fulcrum of Evil]

Of course, the air in basements in many areas has a high concentration of (radioactive) radon, from the decay of uranium in granite.

Don't tell him that until he's barricaded himself inside.

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[Anonymous Coward]

did they mention that these lasers were shark mounted?

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[legirons]

"Stay where you are, we'll be over in black vans to pick you up in a couple of minutes.."

Make sure you blindfold the pilots of your black helicopters as they fly in, so they don't get blinded by his laser...

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just the laser pointers. All pointers can be harmful to the eye.

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[Anonymous Coward]

Lasers don't hurt people, photons hurt people!

In France.

Re:HOAX! The story is impossible

[AJWM]

Uh, if you can see the ground, you can see the laser somebody on the ground is pointing at you.

Are you suggesting that the pilots can't see the ground?

Re:Security concerns not overblown but misdirected

[Anonymous Coward]

I am posting anonymously out of fear that such a post could place me on a no-fly list.

Listen Cat Stevens, or is this Kennedy posting again -- you are already on a no-fly list.

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[Tablizer]

...impossible for the amateur to achieve the conditions necessary to do damage. If I had to put a dollar amount on what it would take to make something like this feasible I would say 100's of thousands to millions of dollars and then what's the point when rocket launchers are so much cheaper?...

Accounting Fundamentals for Terrorists, 2nd Ed., page 83

Bogusness theory 36

[Tablizer]

My theory is that the pilot was really bored, and started playing with his laser pointer pen. His co-pilot and him made a bet about laser-pen tolerance, and he lost. Now he has to find a convenient excuse or risk losing his license.

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[deglr6328]

oh really? force your eyelids open and poke a pencil around in there then let me know how that works out for you. :)

Re:Parent is B.S.

[deglr6328]

"I call bullshit. If the frequency is doubled, the wavelength is halved, and ~400 nm is around the boundary between violet and UV, not green."

If you had any idea WTF you were talking about, idiot, you would know that a ~800nm diode laser is used to optically pump a small crystal of Nd:YVO which then lases at 1064nm and whose output is then freq. doubled to 532nm (green) by a piece of potassium titanate phosphate KTP.

Re:Easy to get these lasers...

[Wolfier]

Don't read the following line

int *b;

OUCH!!