http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/29/laser.plane/index.html

Bad rap for survival/signal lasers?

I've never heard of a survival laser and the whole notion sounds silly. A xenon strobe or 2-way radio makes much more sense.

On the home page of this site there is an evaluation of the type of survival (rescue) laser I was referring to.

laser review

The idea of deliberately aiming a laser at an aircraft in flight is something that scares me greatly. While it likely poses little or no real threat to the safety of a commercial airliner, it could easily kill a General Aviation pilot if it blinded him/her temporarily.

Maybe laser pointers should come with an unmistakeable warning that deliberately pointing them at an aircraft in flight constitutes the federal crime of "endangering the safety of an aircraft in flight" which, I believe, carries a maximum sentence of death in the United States, and life imprisonment in Canada. Maybe then kids who got one as a present for Christmas would think it less funny to try to blind an airline pilot.

It seems that the device used was much more powerful than your average laser pointer, as it "lit up" the cockpit.
Also, lets not assume it was a "kid" that aimed it at the plane(s).
However, it is very possible that you are correct on both counts.

I believe the lasers in question are the high powered green lasers, not the red “Rescue Lasers” made by http://www.greatlandlaser.com/ nor the red pointer lasers that you can buy in almost any office supply store. The high-powered green lasers in question are generally expensive and not readily available unless you are specifically looking for one. That is why there is such concern from a safety and security point of view.

Pete

Thank you, Doug, for a well-thought out and well-researched article on the hysteria surrounding the pointing of small, hand-held lasers at aircraft.

I still think that they should come with a stern warning about pointing them at aircraft, but realistically, I realise now that the danger is - like most of these anti-terrorist scares - exaggerated to the point of caricature.

Thanks for setting me straight, at least.

More panic in the streets <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />
http://www.postgazette.com/pg/05008/438935.stm

"From New Jersey to Utah, pilots are reporting incidents of laser beams aimed into cockpits during flights. In a few cases, pilots were temporarily blinded before recovering sufficiently to make safe landings."

What the article fails to point out is that the cases where pilots were temporarily blinded all appear to have involved commercial industrial strength lasers (the kind used in lightshows) not the small, hand-held pointers. A terrorist hauling around one of those is bound to attract attention - it's not something you slip into your pocket, or even inside a suitcase, I understand. Even in those cases, only one pilot was affected, which means unless you're trying to shoot down a small, general aviation aircraft, you're likely to be wasting your time. And you're not going to go unnoticed.