Reporting a Laser Strike

[Kitzbuhel]

Laser protective wear is only good for one specific type of laser it's designed to protect against. If the one targeting you is different then what you're protected for its useless.

All these events should be reported and the perps prosecuted.

[complexintentions]

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.

This. The most sensible post in the thread.

Sure, report it. I'll mention the position of the laser to the tower controller without a big drama, got pinged just the other night in MNL. But let's not act like getting painted by some idiot with a an eBay account is dancing on the brink of disaster. One day there may be military-grade stuff floating around to worry about, but that isn't what we're talking about here, is it.

I've been harassed a zillion times, on approach in places of the world where I'm pretty sure the rules about the strength of toy lasers are pretty...easygoing. I think every oxygen thief in the Middle East and China has a "frickin' LAY-zer beam" (Austin Powers voice). But in the IFR world, how much do you really need to look outside, anyway? Hunch your head down and land already.

[Rockie]

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.

This. The most sensible post in the thread.

I've been lased five or six times and you're right, it usually is by one of those Canadian Tire specials that you torment cats with. However...once was from about 6500 feet agl over the city and it lit the cockpit up in an intense blue light. I tried to look obliquely near the general area it came from using my hand to block the beam to see if I could narrow it down for the police but it was too dangerous. Had I been looking directly at it when it was fired it would unquestionably have been painful and caused at least temporary impairment if not permanent.

So yes...take it seriously.

[complexintentions]

hey Rockie,

Perhaps the laser was powerful enough to do physical eye damage, maybe not, who knows. But do you really feel the flight was in any actual danger whatsoever? I ask sincerely, not facetiously.

In any event, a handful of events in - I presume - a lengthy career, with a total of 1 that may have been a threat, is in terms of threat management...small beer.

Glad you weren't blinded and all, just looking at the facts. And yes, I do report them.

Just saying we could do more for aviation safety in a million different areas, like fatigue regulations, or teaching people how to use wx radar, before worrying about a LAY-zer bringing down an a/c...

[Rockie]

But do you really feel the flight was in any actual danger whatsoever? I ask sincerely, not facetiously.

Not in this particular case because there happened to be a second very capable pilot and the laser came from the left side, so he could land safely and celebrate gaining a seniority point. I don't see how that diminishes the seriousness of it though. The guy who did it might as easily have parked himself at the approach end and zapped us both in the face going through 200 feet. Different story - and I wouldn't want to leave that choice up to his fine judgement.

[photofly]

How frequent does it have to get before you do support action against it?

Unlike some other things this a completely synthetic risk to an innocent third party caused by positive action by people who know better with no upside at all. It's entirely avoidable.

[linecrew]

... do you really feel the flight was in any actual danger whatsoever? I ask sincerely, not facetiously.

Not necessarily but the pilot's career might have been. That would be a sh**ty way to possibly lose one's medical.

[anonymity]

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canad ... -in-ottawa
“The captain and first officer both looked directly into the beam,” says the report. “The captain is experiencing a slight burning sensation to his left eye. First officer has no symptoms at this time. Both pilots have decided to seek medical treatment.”
A similar incident in 2009 left an Ornge medical helicopter pilot with serious eye damage and grounded for several weeks after he was hit with a laser beam while flying at about 2,000 feet over the Gatineau Hills.

[complexintentions]

Not in this particular case because there happened to be a second very capable pilot and the laser came from the left side, so he could land safely and celebrate gaining a seniority point.

See, this is the kind of rhetoric I'm talking about. Your statement implies you were incapacitated to the point of not being able to perform your duties, and barely escaped with your "seniority point" intact?! C'mon.

Incidentally there's no way you're gonna get zapped at 200AGL. 1. That invariably puts you inside the airport perimeter - not open to the public. 2. Even if some deranged airport employee got a new toy, there's no way the geometry of flight deck windows would allow line of sight from directly below, at that low altitude. Unless you're flying a WWII bomber.

... do you really feel the flight was in any actual danger whatsoever? I ask sincerely, not facetiously.

Not necessarily but the pilot's career might have been. That would be a sh**ty way to possibly lose one's medical.

Agreed. And have there ever been any cases of pilots permanently losing their medical due their vision being damaged by a ground-based laser? I'm genuinely curious. I have a feeling the number is around the same as airliners brought down solely by people forgetting to turn their cell phones off in flight. But, feel free to post credible data. I would have no idea where to look. (And no, the plural of anecdotes is not "data").

I'm not suggesting we stop working to eliminate all threats, whether large or small. But the danger to a flight posed by silly fools wielding their toys barely moves the risk needle. And you aren't going to eliminate a. idiots or b. lasers or c. a+b.

So assess and manage the threat and move on.

[Rockie]

Not in this particular case because there happened to be a second very capable pilot and the laser came from the left side, so he could land safely and celebrate gaining a seniority point.

See, this is the kind of rhetoric I'm talking about. Your statement implies you were incapacitated to the point of not being able to perform your duties, and barely escaped with your "seniority point" intact?! C'mon.

Incidentally there's no way you're gonna get zapped at 200AGL. 1. That invariably puts you inside the airport perimeter - not open to the public. 2. Even if some deranged airport employee got a new toy, there's no way the geometry of flight deck windows would allow line of sight from directly below, at that low altitude. Unless you're flying a WWII bomber.

No I didn't imply I was incapacitated. You asked if the flight was in any actual danger and I honestly answered that it wasn't because the laser came from the left side and couldn't incapacitate the FO. The seniority remark was a bit of humour that you apparently missed.

You also most certainly can get zapped at 200 feet. There is a Tim Horton's short of 36 in Winnipeg and a Wendy's short of 23 in Toronto that would make nice spots to park. For that matter you could do it driving north on Airport Road at YYZ then instantly disappear into the city. Here in North America there are many, many airfields with major roads crossing the approach path inside the approach lights. Those are those bright lights short of a runway that a pilot has to directly see when landing in bad weather (more humour). Both Montreal and Toronto in fact have six lane highways inside the approach lights. Elsewhere 24R in Manchester has a road through the approach lights, part of the lights are in a person's back yard, and you can easily hit an airplane holding short of the runway with a poorly thrown beer bottle from the pub.

St. Maarten beach anyone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS8y89DHMTs

Toronto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWQ0XOFKRCg

Montreal
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2w336b

Manchester
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPrjki28Fs4


Regarding your minimalization of the threat, I think it's been asked before but how many airplanes have to actually crash before you would consider lasers a credible threat worth the time and effort to guard against - which in this case is hardly a burden on resources.