Originally Posted by
norty303
You're getting off the point though Stuka. Claims are being made that the direct effects of the laser are causing temporary blindness, lasting weeks.
Not some involuntary reaction with hands or whatever causing damage (imagine the trouble Captain Hook would be in, no wonder he wears an eye patch)
I'm not disputing the fact that its dangerous and a distraction but to suggest that people are shooting peoples eyes out at long ranges with handhelds of questionable beam quality is just not within the area of physics we are dealing with is it?
My point in agreeing with Steve is that the response to the laser can be a VERY dangerous result of the lasing, and in fact could cause more long-term harm than the laser itself.
Also, there have been documented cases over the last couple of years in which lasing has been the direct cause of damage to some pilots' eyesight.
Military and commercial pilots are subject to much tighter vision scrutiny & restrictions than most, so what might be considered a minor irritant or hardly noticeable side-effect by every-day folks might be a career-ender for a professional aviator.
While the article could undoubtedly have been written a bit better, the FBI clip is dead-on.
Also, I don't see any mention of shooting someone's eyes out with any specific type of laser ~
pretty much everything I read and watched is a reference to the temporary and sometimes long-lasting effects of what we often refer to as "flash-blindness" as a result of the lasing.
I'm guessing most folks here have never been in a situation where they are in command of a busy, dimly-lit aircraft cockpit, with eyesight fully night-adapted, and suddenly hit by blinding flash of laser or other intense light.
When that happens, a person's night vision is basically fucked, to put it bluntly, and even a few seconds of that can present an incredibly dangerous situation to the crew & passengers, especially during landings and other low-altitude flight maneuvers. A person's vision is EXTREMELY sensitive to light when fully night-adapted, so the intensity required to "flash-blind" someone would be considerably less than that required to physically & permanently damage the eyes; but, during whatever time it takes for the pilots eyesight to recover the immediate implications and dangers are the same.
Unfortunately, helicopter crews (kindred brethren) are especially susceptible to be the targets of morons with high-powered handhelds, due to the generally lower flight altitudes and lower airspeeds.
I personally hope that every dumbass who decides to lase a flying aircraft - helicopter or fixed wing - gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Randy
Last edited by Stuka; 02-12-2014 at 12:22.
RR
Metrologic HeNe 3.3mw Modulated laser, 2 Radio Shack motors, and a broken mirror.
1979.
Sweet.....