Laser beams being aimed at airliners?

Has anyone been following the disturbing (to me anyway) news stories
about airliners approaching to land being hit with laser beams aimed
at the cockpits?

One pilot reported having his eyes temporarily damaged.

The FBI appears concerned because the beams are apparently tracking
the airliners, which implies some very expensive equipment. I wonder
if they really are tracking the incoming airliners, or just being
aimed by people using a tripod and crosshairs. Either way, it isn't
just one location, it's happening all across the country and the
incidents appear to be increasing.

Terrorists have been suggested but the FBI is not convinced that is
the case, or at least don't seem to think it's el Qaeda. They
reportedely spoke to a resident on the east coast but did not report
what the discussion was about.

Hasn't anyone else been following this?

Corky Scott

Hasn't anyone else been following this?

How smart it was for the government to broadcast a bulletin to be on the
alert from these kinds of attacks. Yep, that surely helped.

Fortunately it's not getting a lot of media attention, thereby reducing the
number of copycats.

MORONS!

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 09:29:42 -0500, Corky Scott
wrote in
::

Has anyone been following the disturbing (to me anyway) news stories
about airliners approaching to land being hit with laser beams aimed
at the cockpits?

No I hadn't, but there do seem to be several incidents:
http://www.rense.com/general61/eeed.htm
http://cayankee.blogs.com/cayankee/2...injures_a.html
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-break...3221-3952r.htm
http://www.wcpo.com/news/2004/local/...aserbeams.html

Two incidents in Colorado Springs, Colo., and one each in Cleveland,
Washington, Houston, Teterboro, N.J., and Medford, Ore.:
http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/laserhen.htm

This incident was apparently an accident:
http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/arti...ews2-laser.htm

Discussion:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/004479.php
http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/38220

Laser FAQ he http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/laserhen.htm

Does anyone know if these are industrial strength lasers, or the green
laser pens that amateur astronomy buffs use for pointing out stars?
--
Gene Seibel
Gene & Sue's Aeroplanes - http://pad39a.com/gene/planes.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.

Does anyone know if these are industrial strength lasers, or the green
laser pens that amateur astronomy buffs use for pointing out stars?
--
Gene Seibel
Gene & Sue's Aeroplanes - http://pad39a.com/gene/planes.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.

That's just what I was wondering, Gene, when I read some of the news
reports......

--
--
=-----
Good Flights!

Cecil
PP-ASEL-IA
Student - CP-ASEL

Check out my personal flying adventures from my first flight to the
checkride AND the continuing adventures beyond!
Complete with pictures and text at: www.bayareapilot.com

"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

"We who fly, do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with
this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet"
- Cecil Day Lewis -

"Gene Seibel" wrote:

Does anyone know if these are industrial strength lasers, or the
green laser pens that amateur astronomy buffs use for pointing out
stars?

And blinding the man on the moon.

"Gene Seibel" wrote in message
ups.com...
Does anyone know if these are industrial strength lasers, or the green
laser pens that amateur astronomy buffs use for pointing out stars?
--
According to a radio show last night, the lasers have been all "green"
except one. Sounds like it might be the laser pens, but do those have enough
strength to light up a target several thousand feet away?


Matt -- still using a wooden pointer (you can't scratch your own back with a
laser pointer).
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

According to a radio show last night, the lasers have been all "green"
except one. Sounds like it might be the laser pens, but do those have
enough
strength to light up a target several thousand feet away?

I have a bunch of high power visible lasers. All except one are Argon or
Argon / Krypton Gas Ion lasers. Argon produces a mixture of blue and green
colours and Krypton generally produces red. They range in output from 3 to
13 watts. The largest is a mixed gas Argon / Krypton. The same laser with
an Argon tube can produce over 20 watts. But they're *big*. The power
supply is the size of a small refrigerator. The head is over 7 feet long
and weighs about 200 lbs. They require 480V AC service and draw about 50
amps. They also require water cooling at a rate of about 3 US gallons per
minute. Hardly portable. And, they cost at least 25K for a decent used
one. A high level of technical expertise is required to operate them. Go
here and look for "Ion Lasers".

http://www.cohr.com/

There are portable systems that can produce power in these ranges though.
More later. I used to have one near the top of the CN Tower in Toronto. It
was a large frame Argon laser and produced about 20 watts. It was focused
on the ground about 3 miles away. I can't remember what the power level was
at the ground. But it was well below 2.5 mw/cm (the safety limit for brief
exposure). However, even at that level it's still bright enough to
temporarily affect night vision after a brief exposure.

The reports indicate a green beam. There are a few types of solid state
lasers that produce green at high power. Here's one of the largest:

http://www.laserfantasy.com/products_i2000.asp

Again, it requires a fair bit of power and water but I've seen portable
versions of them. They're expensive (~50K US) and require technical
expertise to operate. So I don't think they're practical for covert
terrorist activities.

On the small scale, there is a device (I happen to have one) that could be
used as a turbocharged pointer. Go to
http://lasers.mellesgriot.com/default.asp and look at "Diode Pumped Solid
State Lasers". These produce about three watts of green and only draw about
150 watts. They could easily be powered by a small Inverter in an
automobile. Cost is about 12K US new.

Now for a reality check. To actually blind someone at a distance of several
miles is practically impossible. It would require a very high power laser
and sophisticated tracking equipment. Even then, one would have to
intentionally stare at the offending beam for permanent damage to occur.
The same tracking system with a smaller (~2 watt) laser could be used to
make it impossible to carry out the visual portion of an approach. But, and
anyone experience with laser shows will tell you, holding a beam steady at a
distance of miles is really tricky stuff. However, I think that an amateur,
armed with a 3 watt DPSS laser could cause some serious problems just by
sitting in a vehicle at the end of a runway and eyeballing shots at incoming
planes.

Now, in anticipation of the question, here's what it feels like to get
zapped by one of these things at a distance. (It's happened to me many
times.) You will be momentarily blinded. It won't incapacitate your vision
for more than a few seconds, assuming that you blink. You will want to
abort the approach, not because you won't be able to land, but because the
same thing might happen again. Obviously you'll want to alert the police
and FSS or Tower. If the idiot shining the beam leaves it on, you should be
able to see their location. The colour produced by these devices is an odd
sort of green that doesn't occur in nature an is unmistakeable.

Here's some links on laser safety.

http://www.laserist.org/Laserist/Safety.html
http://www.laserfx.com/Science/Science4.html

moo

Yes, they do, the green lasers especially. In fact, there are several
varieties of emergency signallers which are *designed* to reach search
aircraft. They're obviously not designed to blind the searchers, however,
and this review makes it seem like it would be pretty difficult to keep a
laser trained on a cockpit long enough to cause any eye damage.

http://www.equipped.com/rescuelaser.htm


"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

"Gene Seibel" wrote in message
ups.com...
Does anyone know if these are industrial strength lasers, or the green
laser pens that amateur astronomy buffs use for pointing out stars?
--
According to a radio show last night, the lasers have been all "green"
except one. Sounds like it might be the laser pens, but do those have
enough
strength to light up a target several thousand feet away?


Matt -- still using a wooden pointer (you can't scratch your own back with
a
laser pointer).
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO