Reporting a Laser Strike

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HiLo
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Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by HiLo »

Had the pleasure of experiencing a Laser strike flying night VFR in the Brantford area. Didn't report it, but if I had wanted to, who should I have done this to? Toronto Terminal? Or waited to get back to Hamilton and informed tower?
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Braun
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by Braun »

HiLo wrote:Had the pleasure of experiencing a Laser strike flying night VFR in the Brantford area. Didn't report it, but if I had wanted to, who should I have done this to? Toronto Terminal? Or waited to get back to Hamilton and informed tower?
Report to ATC, always.
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Married a Canadian
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by Married a Canadian »

Report to whoever you are talking to at the time (ATC wise)
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linecrew
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by linecrew »

You can fill out a report afterwards as well. Link on this page:

https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/ ... u-1068.htm
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AirMail
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by AirMail »

Please report it! Those Aholes who do that need to be caught and punished before additional pilots need to be treated for temporary blindness, or worse a crash.
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HiLo
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by HiLo »

Report hath been filed. Hopefully the mighty Transport Canada smites whoever was stupid enough to do that. I also advised the OPP of the occurrence, since it happened in their patrol area.

Thanks for the link and the advice.
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ahramin
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by ahramin »

As stated best practice is to report it to ATC or FSS as soon as it happens. Whoever is in range will do. If the police have an aircraft in the area they fly over the site and often the perpetrator will light them up, making it very easy be identified.
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Rudderless
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by Rudderless »

the most important thing is to try and identify where it came from. Obviously it is difficult to pinpoint the source, but the more specific you can be the better. It is impossible for the police to locate the source after the fact. Plus it doesn't matter who you report it to. ATC and police authorities have information sharing agreements in this regard.
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cdnpilot77
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by cdnpilot77 »

The police officer who took our report a couple Sunday's ago at YYZ had a blackberry with about 75 questions on it that he had to ask. Some of them were fairly redundant, but more than half were the location of the laser source and location in relation to the airplane. So, if you can nail that down then it will make their job finding these a-holes that much easier.

It was about 15minutes of our time, as with a couple other crews that night, to give the report and apparently they caught him that same night when he wisely lasered a police helicopter. So, I would say 15mins well spent.

We simply told ATC on the ground after turning off the active. By the time we taxied in, gave the pax the boot and put the airplane to bed, the officer was waiting to take the report.
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karmutzen
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by karmutzen »

I don't bother to report, maybe I would if it was one of the Russian lasers from one of their patrol boats. The rinky-dink dollar-store pencil lasers are no big deal, just part of the intrigue of night flying. I don't care for staying up any later than I have to to field the 75 questions that are going to come your way.

I've been zapped a few times, once with a student pilot working on a night rating. Chilliwack, midnight, nobody to talk to, seemed to be coming from a pig farm across the freeway. Told the student it was a rite of passage, part of his night rating training, and the blah blah, what color laser, location it comes from - but don't look at it, etc. And he could do the boy scout thing and report it, nothing would happen, and I'd be asleep in bed while he went through the process.
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rxl
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by rxl »

karmutzen wrote:I don't bother to report, maybe I would if it was one of the Russian lasers from one of their patrol boats. The rinky-dink dollar-store pencil lasers are no big deal, just part of the intrigue of night flying. I don't care for staying up any later than I have to to field the 75 questions that are going to come your way.

I've been zapped a few times, once with a student pilot working on a night rating. Chilliwack, midnight, nobody to talk to, seemed to be coming from a pig farm across the freeway. Told the student it was a rite of passage, part of his night rating training, and the blah blah, what color laser, location it comes from - but don't look at it, etc. And he could do the boy scout thing and report it, nothing would happen, and I'd be asleep in bed while he went through the process.
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to report issues like this.

Don't slough this off as a "boy scout thing". The reporting of safety concerns - especially malicious threats to an aircraft in flight - is a big part of your job as pilot in command.

If there's an issue ahead that may impact the safety of your flight and someone has previously encountered it, wouldn't you want to know?

Maybe you need to educate yourself a little bit about the effects of laser light on the human eye.
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HiLo
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by HiLo »

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mobile/lase ... -1.2535792

The OPP don't take that stuff lightly. Glad to know.
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Big Pistons Forever
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by Big Pistons Forever »

rxl wrote:
karmutzen wrote:I don't bother to report, maybe I would if it was one of the Russian lasers from one of their patrol boats. The rinky-dink dollar-store pencil lasers are no big deal, just part of the intrigue of night flying. I don't care for staying up any later than I have to to field the 75 questions that are going to come your way.

I've been zapped a few times, once with a student pilot working on a night rating. Chilliwack, midnight, nobody to talk to, seemed to be coming from a pig farm across the freeway. Told the student it was a rite of passage, part of his night rating training, and the blah blah, what color laser, location it comes from - but don't look at it, etc. And he could do the boy scout thing and report it, nothing would happen, and I'd be asleep in bed while he went through the process.
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to report issues like this.

Don't slough this off as a "boy scout thing". The reporting of safety concerns - especially malicious threats to an aircraft in flight - is a big part of your job as pilot in command.

If there's an issue ahead that may impact the safety of your flight and someone has previously encountered it, wouldn't you want to know?

Maybe you need to educate yourself a little bit about the effects of laser light on the human eye.
^ What he said
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old_man
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by old_man »

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JasonE
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by JasonE »

Reported a laser strike....I just HAPPEN to have the GoPro running and can even identify the house.
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Last edited by JasonE on Thu Dec 24, 2015 10:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Carelessness and overconfidence are more dangerous than deliberately accepted risk." -Wilbur Wright
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JasonE
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by JasonE »

For those who have never seen one:

Image
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SuperchargedRS
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by SuperchargedRS »

I've been lased a couple times, not blinding and sure not a reason for a crash, it's a little over blown and dramatized, much like drones.

Personally I report it if I'm talking to ATC at the time, those people are idiots and deserve the police annoyance, however from my experience I wouldn't invest anymore time in the matter other than that.
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snakesonaplane
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by snakesonaplane »

JasonE wrote:Reported a laser strike....I just HAPPEN to have the GoPro running and can even identify the house.
It may not have been an individual with a laser. Apprently certain Christmas lights that light up the front of people's homes have become very popular this year and rely on lasers. I was out flying the other night and I experienced what seemed like countless laser strikes due to this.
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GyvAir
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by GyvAir »

JasonE wrote:For those who have never seen one:
Was that frame taken from your own GoPro footage?
SuperchargedRS wrote:I've been lased a couple times, not blinding and sure not a reason for a crash, it's a little over blown and dramatized, much like drones.
There are lasers and then there are lasers. What type and power of laser were you hit with? From what distance, direction and angle? What were the atmospheric and ambient light conditions at the time? What type of material was your windshield constructed with? How sensitive to bright lights are your eyes in particular?
While most laser strikes are likely in the nuisance category, I don't think a blanket statement that it's no big deal is quite fair, given the wide range of experiences possible.
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If I read correctly, the larger ones in this photo are 1W models, which according to the 2011 article, were the largest readily available to the public size at the time.
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Re: Reporting a Laser Strike

Post by hazatude »

It's attempted murder as far as I'm concerned.
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