Laser strikes

William Pete Hodges

William Pete Hodges

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I noticed an AOPA article about aircraft laser strikes being on the rise, even though flight time was down in 2020. The article said there were 7398 reported laser strikes last year. That seems like a lot. Can a laser strike cause temporary blindness? How would you handle that in the air? Has anyone on this forum been hit with a laser? What did you do?

Just curious.
 
Yep. Upstate New York, md-88, maybe 5k feet on a visual approach at night.

simply recognized the flash and deliberately ignored anything that direction, the left side window.

Told my copilot and approach. Wasn’t a big deal, I experienced nothing that compromised safety.

Might have helped I’d been keenly aware of this for years, dunno.
 
Someone needs to make a detection system that will track the laser, aim a laser mounted to the belly of the plane back at the ground laser and then light it up. Oh, and of course the laser on the plane will be measured in a unit bigger than mW.
 
Bell206 said:
Lasers can cause permanent blindness and life long pain. Know a former CBP pilot who lost the sight in one eye due to a laser hit. Not a good thing to happen.
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Knowing this, I immediately took (albeit simple) precautions. I can see where it would be pretty simple to just get unlucky. I saw a flash, and knew. Having not being predisposed, would be easy to go staring out wondering what that was...
 
I got hit about five years ago as a passenger in an airliner, didn't cause any problems for me, but you have to be a special type of dumbass to do something like that.
 
Commercially available lasers can be found with power outputs which will do immediate harm to the eyes. A direct hit and the damage is done. When these people are found they should be dealt with harshly--high monetary fines and if they cannot put up the cash, then mandatory jail time. Flashing a laser into an aircraft is an assault with intent to do bodily harm, no different, in my mind, than attacking someone with a knife.
 
Flying a 182 at night several years ago, I noticed a green flash under my left wing, and instinctively looked to see what was going on. The beam then spent some time scattering all over, and inside, the plane as they tried to track me. Of course by then I was doing my best to avoid looking at it while continuing to aviate, navigate and communicate. My first, and so far only, time being lasered.

I’ve no way to know how powerful it was, I suspect most of this is done with simple hand held pointers. But regardless, this is serious stuff. You’re flying at night and your pupils are expanded to capture all available light - that includes laser light, too. In my case, I was about 2000 AGL, coming in to land. I had a bit of eye pain for a day or so.
 
Not in a plane but I’ve had several laser hits by qualified doctors. They literally fry your retina tissue to glue it down, effectively destroying that bit’s ability to see. (But sealing off any further detachment, thus saving your eyesight on the whole.) A direct hit on your macula with a strong enough laser would, I imagine, permanently blind you, and it wouldn’t take but a fraction of a second looking directly at it. You don’t even want some stray laser indirectly hitting any part of your retina, or heating up the fluid inside your eyeball. If those laser pointers are anything like the lasers they use in treatment, that’s a lot of energy packed into a split second going into your eye, and it hurts. Because it is literally burning tissue.

People caught aiming lasers at pilots need mandatory prison time IMO.
 
If you are talking to ATC at the time of the event, tell them immediately so they can mark your position on their scope and not only warn other aircraft but direct law enforcement aircraft to the site. This has happened several times in the Tucson area over the years and a lot of the times we've have the police helicopter (Air1) in the air. I have personally been a factor in catching at least three laser perps so far. Twice they were so dumb to light up Air1 which just made it easier to catch them.
 
Is it less dangerous during daylight hours? I guess the offenders don’t get to see its effect so they don’t bother in daylight?
 
I think if I were hit at night, I’d turn off all my lights and contact ATC. If they can’t see your lights, they can’t hit you with a laser.
 
EdFred said:
Someone needs to make a detection system that will track the laser, aim a laser mounted to the belly of the plane back at the ground laser and then light it up. Oh, and of course the laser on the plane will be measured in a unit bigger than mW.
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Such a system was just announced. I'm too lazy to find the article.
 
A few times over the years at the NOLF Fentress pattern near VA Beach. Another time over Iraq. None of them caused any damage, and were mainly just a nuisance/safety of flight concern. Local PD actually ran a sting operation on one of the offenders at Fentress, and caught the guy.
 
Old97 said:
Is it less dangerous during daylight hours? I guess the offenders don’t get to see its effect so they don’t bother in daylight?
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Your pupils are more constricted during the day, but I think the ability to aim the laser is largely diminished during the day time as they can't zero in on you.
 
Once in the pattern at Runkle AHP, Alabama. Bright flash but had NVGs on so for the most part our eyes were protected. Notified tower but they had seen it anyway and we’re making the appropriate phone calls.

We get laser reports all the time in EMS but I’ve yet to get lit up.
 
Some idiot shot his laser pen into my wife's eye a few years ago when we were eating in a restaurant. She got up and walked over to his table and threatened to whip his a$$....don't mess with my wife ! :)

It caused her pain, but no lasting damage as far as she can tell.
 
Really depends on the laser. Alibaba can ship lots of stuff that you’re not supposed to be able to buy here.

 
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