Possible anti-aircraft use for flashlights? From the WTF? FIles

According the the BBC in this article No charges in torch shining case

A man who was arrested after he shone a torch at an Apache attack helicopter flying "10ft" above his garden will not be charged, police have said.
He said he was awoken by an "almighty noise and vibration" at 0100 BST on 18 September.

"My first reaction was that it was an earthquake," he said.

"It was a clear night but pitch black and I could feel the vibrations beating against my chest - very frightening.

"That was when I realised it must be a helicopter really low and very close. I couldn't see any navigation lights from the direction of the noise so I shone my torch."

Mr Merriott said he found it hard to be believe the pilot would have lost control in the face of his torch.

"Don't tell the Taliban that all they need is a 10-quid torch to bring down some of our finest young fliers in their multi-million pound, high-tech gunships," he said.

The Ministry of Defence said the shining of any kind of light at a helicopter was dangerous because pilots could be dazzled.

There apparently are unsubstantiated rumours that large orders for flashlights are being placed with middle east weapons dealers and that DHS in the US is now data mining for suspicious flashlight activity and profiling flashlight users.

Of course, in fairness, how much more "dazzled" could this pilot be if he was hovering 10 ft above a senior citizen's home without any lights on? Silly old man, in this era of terrorism paranoia, he forgot that he was supposed to cower in his bed while the "gummint" did as it wanted.

Heh, you ever used NVG? A flashlight shining in the reticule will blind your ass with the quickness. I've thought about that for years since the first time I used NVG. Newer models have filters for that kind of crap but the older gens will "white out" on you....well "green out"

[edit on 22-10-2009 by midnightbrigade]

This is hysterical...How could a PILOT of an apache attack helicopter (the most sophisticated helicopter know to man) crash the helicopter because of a simple flashlight? I am sorry I am from America and we do not use this term but I wanted to clarify is dazzled sort of like bewildered or completely distracted? I wanted to make sure. What was the pilot doing above the gentleman's house in the first place without lights on?

LifENcircleS

reply to post by LifENcircleS


Dazzled = Blinded.

As in.. Blinded by the flashlight... Not bedazzled by some kind of Magician.
I assume you use the word blinded in the USofA?

:lol

What a load of nonsense. Sure, a flashlight might theoretically dazzle a pilot, causing him to lose control of his aircraft and crash it. He had all of 10 feet to fall, so he might have gotten hurt. Plus he'd have ruined his fancy machine.

But for crying out loud, if you're hovering around, all blacked out, you have to expect that someone might want to see what the heck is making all that noise, and shine a light up at it, just to see. I mean, how are you supposed to know it's a helicopter, if you can't even see the thing? And for all he knew, it could have been the Taliban visiting. He was just doing his patriotic duty.

I would think they'd be too embarrassed to take this guy to court and try to punish him. The judge and jury would laugh them right out of court.

Reminds me of the American who got into trouble for shining an industrial laser pointer at a jet liner. He somehow supposedly managed to keep the dot on the pilot's eye in a plane a mile away, passing at some hundreds of miles an hour, all while showing his little girl how the thing worked. I could *almost* believe that story...

While it is funny to read, incidents like this are no laughing matter. If this pilot had been doing a low level high speed run both crew members could have been killed. As for the laser blindings it only takes a split second to blind a pilot. At least one pilot that was hit with a laser for less than a second was blinded for almost an hour.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
While it is funny to read, incidents like this are no laughing matter. If this pilot had been doing a low level high speed run both crew members could have been killed. As for the laser blindings it only takes a split second to blind a pilot. At least one pilot that was hit with a laser for less than a second was blinded for almost an hour.

You are quite right and this was not an attempt to trivialize the real dangers of laser blindings of pilots HOWEVER

1. The helicopter was blacked out and hovering over the old gent's house at a very low altitude. This led to the natural inclination on his part to see what was going on -- he did not expect to see an Apache attack helicopter it seems.

2. It was a common flashlight, not a laser.

It was the second point that seemed to make the military response a bit... shall we say excessive. The suggestion that shinning a household flashlight could be responsible for downing a sophisticated, high tech piece of battle ready military equipment.

I think the appropriate military response should have been "Oops, sorry mate!" and be off.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
While it is funny to read, incidents like this are no laughing matter. If this pilot had been doing a low level high speed run both crew members could have been killed. As for the laser blindings it only takes a split second to blind a pilot. At least one pilot that was hit with a laser for less than a second was blinded for almost an hour.

No it's not funny to read.

It's tragic that military and police aircraft (at least over here) sometimes fly so low as to present complete disregard to life and property of civilians on the ground. If these people do get blinded while flying at 10 or even 50 feet AGL, it's their own damn fault. I've personally witnessed a helo at less than 50 feet AGL. My better half encountered a police helo flying at the height of telephone poles.

How do such freakin' immature people get such power?

It has nothing to do with power. The helicopters fly low for airspace deconfliction. By flying low they are out of the way of everything else in the air.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
It has nothing to do with power. The helicopters fly low for airspace deconfliction. By flying low they are out of the way of everything else in the air.

If aircraft are flying 50' AGL and below for "deconfliction", they should not be in the air. Period. There is absolutely no legitimate reason for flying so low.

Under Google Video do a search for "helicopter crash".

Actually there is. The military flies that low in combat and have to train, and police need to see better. But the point is that below a certain altitude they are in uncontrolled airspace so that also helps controllers.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
Actually there is. The military flies that low in combat and have to train, and police need to see better. But the point is that below a certain altitude they are in uncontrolled airspace so that also helps controllers.

Believe what you will.

Remember that military are training for battle. There are significantly large military reservations where flying low would be appropriate. There is no legitmate reason for police or military to fly that low over private property.

I'll take my beliefs with me when/if I am a juror making decisions about irresponsible and/or criminal conduct by government troops or employees.