BA pilot's eye damaged by 'military' laser shone into cockpit at Heathrow

Half of all pilots targeted in past year but latest incident involved laser used in weaponry, says pilots’ association

A British Airways pilot has reportedly been left with significant damage to his eyesight after a “military-strength” laser was shone into the cockpit of his plane landing at Heathrow, in what appears to be the most serious laser attack to date in the UK.

The pilot suffered a burned retina in his right eye and has not worked since, according to the head of the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa).

The incident has escalated concerns over the problem of laser attacks. Balpa claims that one in two pilots has been in a plane targeted with lasers in the last 12 months.

The unnamed BA pilot was in the co-pilot’s seat as the plane was landing at the London airport in the spring, and was later treated for eye injuries at a hospital in Sheffield, Balpa’s general secretary, Jim McAuslan, said.
British Airways said it was investigating the claims: “The safety of our crew and our customers is always our main concern. We urge our pilots to report such incidents so we can make the authorities aware.”

McAuslan said the incident showed the dangers that pilots now faced from lasers, which have become easy to buy on the internet. He said that one tenement block in Glasgow was now known as “laser block” to pilots and police from the number of planes targeted from there while landing at the city’s airport.

Less severe incidents have often been ascribed to children or youthful delinquency. McAuslan said the “kids’ ones” were not powerful enough to cause physical harm, but he said lasers used in weaponry had now become available on the black market.

He said: “We’re very concerned about it. When something as strong as this comes on the scene it starts to worry us.”
According to figures compiled by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the number of reports of laser incidents in the UK has remained relatively constant at about four to five a day on average over the last four years.

But McAuslan said that in a poll conducted for Balpa, half of all the pilots in his union had reported a laser attack in the last 12 months, and warned that even weaker lasers could have serious consequences if pilots were distracted by the beams when landing planes: “It’s a critical point in flight, you have to have complete concentration. When it comes into the flight deck, it bounces around the walls of the cockpit.”

A spokesperson for Balpa added: “Lasers are one of the growing threats to flight safety faced by pilots along with fatigue, weakening regulation and security.
“We are also aware of concern around the ease of access to lasers, the increasing power of the technology and the potential they have to cause injury.”

More than 400 incidents were reported in the UK in the first six months of this year, according to the CAA, with the highest number of incidents around Heathrow – although in proportion to air traffic, regional airports including Birmingham, Leeds Bradford, Newcastle and East Midlands have a far higher frequency.

In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration said the number of incidents had grown steadily since it started collating information on laser attacks in 2005. More than 3,700 incidents have been reported in the US this year.

The FBI has released public information films to warn about the effects of laser pointers, explaining how beams can blind pilots at night, with their effects intensified as light is dispersed by the cockpit windows. A Californian man was sentenced to 14 years in prison in March this year for pointing a laser at a police helicopter.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/23/ba-pilots-eye-damaged-by-military-laser-shone-into-cockpit-at-heathrow



This must be dealt with as a highly serious problem.   What if it causes an accident and the plane crashes into houses.  Why hasn't anything been done before now, when it is perfectly obviously there could be really serious consequences.

The helicopter that hit the pub in Scotland, how do they know this wasn't the cause, they have put it down to pilot error.

yep its real bad....


but i already know YOUR solution to it

Lord Foul wrote:yep its real bad....


but i already know YOUR solution to it

Well you know more than me then, because I was wondering how the hell they track down twits using these weapons.  The laser pointers the kids use can't do what this weapon did, read the article.  This is way more than them.

McAuslan said the “kids’ ones” were not powerful enough to cause physical harm,

they are for astronomy.

you cant have them with out good reason down here now for the same reason (but it was helicopters mainly police being targeted)

I'm not surprised!  Apart from aircraft, what about if they used them on drivers in cities, they could kill and maim loads of people.  This world is filled with madness.

I can see your "party" now sat discussing this...

BAN them for the public

only military and industrial use

hey guys I have an idea....anyone who wants one will have to register ...fee £200 a year

AND

they will have to undergo a one day unfailable "traing course" fee...£2000


which of course will immediately mean that SME and one man businesses like me are forbidden to use them becasue we cant afford the cost of £2200 per year

(hint I am at present working on fitting a 3 watt laser to my CNC to be able to computer pyrograph stuff I make...)

point one...dont say it aint so...labour were responsible for "part P"

which meant any electrician had to bump up his prices to pay the MASSIVE fees involved

however the market is different,,,there are no real "big business" competitors to electricians by the nature of the work, so they just passed on te cost to te consumer...thats you and me...well YOU anyway....me...well lets just say, as they say in france to rules they dont like.....

whereas with the sort of thing I do there is, especially chinese....and I have to compete

there is however an answer but that would involve the airlines doing something to protect themselves....

they wont......

veya_victaous wrote:they are for astronomy.

you cant have them with out good reason down here now for the same reason (but it was helicopters mainly police being targeted)

how much does "good reason" cost then Veya

Lord Foul wrote:I can see your "party" now sat discussing this...

BAN them for the public

only military and industrial use

hey guys I have an idea....anyone who wants one will have to register ...fee £200 a year

AND

they will have to undergo a one day unfailable "traing course" fee...£2000


which of course will immediately mean that SME and one man businesses like me are forbidden to use them becasue we cant afford the cost of £2200 per year

(hint I am at present working on fitting a 3 watt laser to my CNC to be able to computer pyrograph stuff I make...)

point one...dont say it aint so...labour were responsible for "part P"

which meant any electrician had to bump up his prices to pay the MASSIVE fees involved

however the market is different,,,there are no real "big business" competitors to electricians by the nature of the work, so they just passed on te cost to te consumer...thats you and me...well YOU anyway....me...well lets just say, as they say in france to rules they dont like.....

whereas with the sort of thing I do there is, especially chinese....and I have to compete

there is however an answer but that would involve the airlines doing something to protect themselves....

they wont......

Normally I think of you as a pretty intelligent man, but sometimes you make me doubt that, and this is one of them.

I can't think of one reason why anyone who wasn't using is for the purposes of their job, under controlled conditions, should ever be allowed to have one.   Once again you have missed the fact that this was a WEAPONS LASER.

Lord Foul wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:they are for astronomy.

you cant have them with out good reason down here now for the same reason (but it was helicopters mainly police being targeted)

how much does "good reason" cost then Veya

really just a decent telescope and some evidence that you are into Astronomy and not a jackass that want to point it at aircraft
Really Only legitimate people that use them are people actually presenting something about Astronomy.

sassy wrote:

Lord Foul wrote:I can see your "party" now sat discussing this...

BAN them for the public

only military and industrial use

hey guys I have an idea....anyone who wants one will have to register ...fee £200 a year

AND

they will have to undergo a one day unfailable "traing course" fee...£2000


which of course will immediately mean that SME and one man businesses like me are forbidden to use them becasue we cant afford the cost of £2200 per year

(hint I am at present working on fitting a 3 watt laser to my CNC to be able to computer pyrograph stuff I make...)

point one...dont say it aint so...labour were responsible for "part P"

which meant any electrician had to bump up his prices to pay the MASSIVE fees involved

however the market is different,,,there are no real "big business" competitors to electricians by the nature of the work, so they just passed on te cost to te consumer...thats you and me...well YOU anyway....me...well lets just say, as they say in france to rules they dont like.....

whereas with the sort of thing I do there is, especially chinese....and I have to compete

there is however an answer but that would involve the airlines doing something to protect themselves....

they wont......

Normally I think of you as a pretty intelligent man, but sometimes you make me doubt that, and this is one of them.

I can't think of one reason why anyone who wasn't using is for the purposes of their job, under controlled conditions, should ever be allowed to have one.   Once again you have missed the fact that this was a WEAPONS LASER.

I have missed NOTHING sassy....


its description means nothing and is likely journalistic gobbledygook

like I said i am atm DEVELOPING my own 3w unit...which is quite capable of doing what is described...(available on ebay btw)


so what "controlls" do you wish to impose...upon a one man business huh...that wont be uneconomical if not impossible cost wise

what moron of a civil servant are you going to employ that decides whether I am "worthy or not" or what my "purpose" is....

how many inspections do you want me to pay for?

the airlines CAN solve this.....but they wont and as usual the SME will suffer...

as I said ..but you wont....look at part P

at least the conservatives had the good sense to review it and repeal the WORST of it...

Maybe the airline can solve it, although I have no idea why they wouldn't if they could.  But ordinary motorists can't, or anyone else for that matter.  You have a laser for a particular purpose.  Are you saying that you could easily dismount it from it's setting and take it somewhere and point it at an aircraft?

they seem to have made allowances for that down here victor Cause you can buy a lot of laser stuff ... in component form ... defense by intelligence... or lack of it 

There was these powerful green laser pointers that were astronomy grade that flooded the markets and junk stores a couple of years ago, sometimes we just get stuff cause China had a fuckton cheap and one of our entrepreneurs had an 'idea'

sassy wrote:Maybe the airline can solve it, although I have no idea why they wouldn't if they could.  But ordinary motorists can't, or anyone else for that matter.  You have a laser for a particular purpose.  Are you saying that you could easily dismount it from it's setting and take it somewhere and point it at an aircraft?

Yes, non cutting laser units weight is a few hundred grams. most look like oversize version of the normal red ones.

veya_victaous wrote:

sassy wrote:Maybe the airline can solve it, although I have no idea why they wouldn't if they could.  But ordinary motorists can't, or anyone else for that matter.  You have a laser for a particular purpose.  Are you saying that you could easily dismount it from it's setting and take it somewhere and point it at an aircraft?

Yes, non cutting laser units weight is a few hundred grams. most look like oversize version of the normal red ones.

Could be wrong, but I think Victor uses lasers that cut.

Anyway, off to bye byes, have a good discussion folks.

If I was so inclined ...yes

hell if i was so inclined i could remove the laser drive, tube and optics out of one of these



thats a 100watt unit and would cut your hand off if you got it into the beam

it could likely harm you severely you at 500 yards and blind you at 5 miles

now ...I could remove and repurpose the unit....though not many could (I'm an EL tech dont forget)

so..........

why does that change anything...why should I pay an unpayable price????

the solution lies elsewhere....

the burden should not lie on small businesses...

your precious EU already prevents me from making toys......

becasue the burden of regulation and the costs thereto lie as heavily on me as a one man business as it does upon a massive multimillion pound corporation

veya_victaous wrote:

sassy wrote:Maybe the airline can solve it, although I have no idea why they wouldn't if they could.  But ordinary motorists can't, or anyone else for that matter.  You have a laser for a particular purpose.  Are you saying that you could easily dismount it from it's setting and take it somewhere and point it at an aircraft?

Yes, non cutting laser units weight is a few hundred grams. most look like oversize version of the normal red ones.

A 3 watt one will cut paper (especially the violet ones) and very thin e.g veneer wood

I use it to pyrograph onto thicker stuff for decoration.....(or will when i can manage to program this ruddy arduino properly )

Lord Foul wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:

sassy wrote:Maybe the airline can solve it, although I have no idea why they wouldn't if they could.  But ordinary motorists can't, or anyone else for that matter.  You have a laser for a particular purpose.  Are you saying that you could easily dismount it from it's setting and take it somewhere and point it at an aircraft?

Yes, non cutting laser units weight is a few hundred grams. most look like oversize version of the normal red ones.

A 3 watt one will cut paper (especially the violet ones) and very thin e.g veneer wood

I use it to pyrograph onto thicker stuff for decoration.....(or will when i can manage to program this ruddy arduino properly )

I was going to say 3W will Engrave..  but not really a cutter (yes paper etc  )

here is the instructions to make a similar 3W laser engraver ... might be the same this one using Arduino too

http://www.instructables.com/id/3W-4x4-Arduino-Laser-CutterEngraver/

cheers veya ...I'll have a look.

it needs to take the text file output of a program called mach3 and translate that into XYZ movement and laser output power...

I'm an EL tech, not a hairy, dope smoking, space cadet of a progammer......So I struggle at times with programming....

but I get there, usually less a load of hair I have pulled out and a few points higher blood pressure and a whole universe of invective aimed at said micro.......

the airlines...and car manufactures for that matter could solve this with a monomolecular layer of gold sprayed onto the screen or a layer of laser light filter material

I wear laser goggles whilst powering the thing up....

they dont significantly reduce normal vision....

the authorities could also help by giving whole life sentences to perps.....

Lord Foul wrote:the authorities could also help by giving whole life sentences to perps.....

Terrorism offense .. trying to bring down a plane

Surprised if they don't charge them with it
 and it is easy to track if the catch an image of it.