Two arrested for pointing laser at plane

Just thought I would share this local news item:

Two people were taken into custody Thursday for allegedly pointing a laser at a plane near Midway Airport, police said....

Charges are still pending, police say. The suspects also are accused of pointing a laser at a police helicopter that arrived to investigate the lasers seen on the plane.
No one in the plane or helicopter was injured.
Pointing a laser light at a plane is illegal.

MSNBC

Remember: if you think you see a UFO, pointing a laser at it is not a good way to attempt to communicate. It could endanger a terrestrial aircraft by blinding the pilot and land you in jail

reply to post by DJW001


Speaking from experience, the type of folks who gleen amusement from pointing those silly lasers would have trouble finding intelligent life in their own bodies, nevermind elsewhere.

reply to post by DJW001


Possibly Greer and Kruse.
I wonder what kind of penalty they are facing.

Charges are still pending, police say. The suspects also are accused of pointing a laser at a police helicopter that arrived to investigate the lasers seen on the plane.

Geniuses!

I hope they get locked up for a good, long while.

reply to post by derpif

I wonder what kind of penalty they are facing.

Washington - People who knowingly aim laser pointers at aircraft would be committing a federal crime subject to up to five years in prison under legislation passed by both the House and the Senate.

Random source.

reply to post by DJW001


I wonder if a high-power laser pointer, maybe one of the green ones, would monkeywrench a project Bluebeam hologram.

reply to post by grizzle2


A bird could monkey wrench project bluebeam.

If they are so dangerous, why do they sell them?

Originally posted by DJW001
Just thought I would share this local news item:

Two people were taken into custody Thursday for allegedly pointing a laser at a plane near Midway Airport, police said....

Charges are still pending, police say. The suspects also are accused of pointing a laser at a police helicopter that arrived to investigate the lasers seen on the plane.
No one in the plane or helicopter was injured.
Pointing a laser light at a plane is illegal.

MSNBC

Remember: if you think you see a UFO, pointing a laser at it is not a good way to attempt to communicate. It could endanger a terrestrial aircraft by blinding the pilot and land you in jail

edit on 18-3-2011 by DJW001 because: Edit to correct formatting.

Haha, I had one of those illegal 100mw laser pointers a while back, it was from China, and broke, but I still had one. It could shine for 5 miles before it started to distort, and it always came out as a solid beam. They are amazing!

Never shone it at a plane though, only at nieghbor's houses

Originally posted by minkey53
If they are so dangerous, why do they sell them?

Soon enough they wont.

The past 2-3 years has seen a constant and increasing "anti-laser" push from nanny state idiots who think words on paper prevent bad behavior.

It's like they ban a thing then put their fingers in their ears and shut their eyes and the problem is gone.

You want to really stop it just have any aircraft that gets hit with one fire on the source of the laser. Self defense.

Sure, it'd be crazy expensive at first to give every plane an armed escort and sure there is bound to be some collateral damage but that's all very short term. After a few giggling stoners get their neighborhoods leveled by being idiots it'll stop.

reply to post by minkey53

If they are so dangerous, why do they sell them?

Because they can be useful. It's only when an idiot gets their hands on one that they become dangerous. (I'm including religious fanatics who want to kill infidels in the "idiot" category.)

What kind of laser are they using?

Back in high school it was all the rage to go around harassing people with the red lasers (back when they were larger and more expensive) and I've had them shone in my eyes many many times. I'm not blind.

I personally feel this whole "laser blinding pilots and taking down commercial airliners" is a bunch of crap. Someone should tell the terrorists to stop bothering with bombs if they can take down an airplane with a damned laser pointer.

How silly.

reply to post by James1982


Silly you say?

Are you for real?

This is what a laser can do when pointed into the eyes:







www.pangolin.com...

www.laserpointersafety.com...

Still silly?

Good, hope this is a lesson for some.

These type of idiots will only get these things banned for those who use them responsibly.
Which tbh is only a limited few, I wish the same rules would apply to those at sporting events as well.

Originally posted by James1982
I personally feel this whole "laser blinding pilots and taking down commercial airliners" is a bunch of crap. Someone should tell the terrorists to stop bothering with bombs if they can take down an airplane with a damned laser pointer.

True enough that the notion of "blinding" a pilot with most common laser pointers is a bit laughable; however, there are high power pointers where the notion, although improbable, is possible to cause a bit of temporary blindness.

The real threat (the one that they don't like to "advertise") is the notion of "painting" a target, by laser, for a guided ordinance weapon to lock-on to. Personally, if I were departing on a vacation or business trip, the last thing I'd want is for the pilot to start evasive steep-banks or barrel-roll maneuvers, under the expectation that a possible shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile could be incoming, all because some drunk thought it'd be funny to hit the plane with a laser pointer. At that point the lives of the pilots, crew, passengers, and anyone in the plane's flight path are all in danger.

Originally posted by minkey53
If they are so dangerous, why do they sell them?

The same reason they still sell cars, planes, guns, etc...

In the hands of a responsible person, they are ok....

In the hands of a Darwin reject, it causes problems. Why punish the whole?

Originally posted by redmage

Originally posted by James1982
I personally feel this whole "laser blinding pilots and taking down commercial airliners" is a bunch of crap. Someone should tell the terrorists to stop bothering with bombs if they can take down an airplane with a damned laser pointer.

True enough that the notion of "blinding" a pilot with most common laser pointers is a bit laughable; however, there are high power pointers where the notion, although improbable, is possible to cause a bit of temporary blindness.

The real threat (the one that they don't like to "advertise") is the notion of "painting" a target, by laser, for a guided ordinance weapon to lock-on to. Personally, if I were departing on a vacation or business trip, the last thing I'd want is for the pilot to start evasive steep-banks or barrel-roll maneuvers, under the expectation that a possible shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile could be incoming, all because some drunk thought it'd be funny to hit the plane with a laser pointer. At that point the lives of the pilots, crew, passengers, and anyone in the plane's flight path are all in danger.

edit on 3/18/11 by redmage because: (no reason given)

That makes a lot of sense, I've not heard that reason before (which would make sense as it's "not advertised")

I'm not saying its a good idea to point laser pointers at planes, but it seems a little much when you hear about teenagers getting locked up for lasering a plane.

Has there ever been an instance of a plane crashing because of a laser pointer? Just curious.

Originally posted by Chadwickus
reply to post by James1982

 

Silly you say?

Are you for real?

This is what a laser can do when pointed into the eyes:

Still silly?

Yep still a bit silly in my opinion. Aside from the fact that there are two pilots aboard a plane, the odds of hitting one of the in the eye from a thousand feet away is pretty low. I'm not saying it can't, or doesn't happen, but people make it seem as if lasers are as dangerous to planes as stinger missiles. That's what I find silly.

So when you are using one of these at an Astronomy club or party night, pointing at various stars and constellations, it must be difficult to wonder if the cops are going to show up and cuff you.

After all, you beam going into the sky will be spotted miles away and they might think you're up to no good when you are quite innocently showing your girlfriend Orions Belt lol.

Strange World we live in!

Originally posted by minkey53
So when you are using one of these at an Astronomy club or party night, pointing at various stars and constellations, it must be difficult to wonder if the cops are going to show up and cuff you.

After all, you beam going into the sky will be spotted miles away and they might think you're up to no good when you are quite innocently showing your girlfriend Orions Belt lol.

Strange World we live in!

I will take a page from what other people on ATS do, and make up a grand conspiracy to tie together unrelated and made up facts.

Nibiru is coming, and and TPTB don't want you to see it. Chemtrails and blacking out patches of google sky isn't working well enough, so what is a little old illuminati to do?

We all know amature astronomers are the enemy of TPTB, so to stop them from pointing out things in the sky with their laser pointers, we will fabricate the idea that laser pointers are dangerous to planes. Then we will be able to go around arresting everyone pointing out nibiru with a laser pointer under the guise of keeping the skies safe.

This is really happening people, I swear. Just you wait.

Shania Smith, 22, of the 8200 block of South Elizabeth and Elvin Slater, 24, of the 400 block of West 60th Street were each charged with 6 misdemeanor counts for an unlawful use of a weapon and pointing a laser at an officer.

Point a "laser" at an officer???

Unlawful use of a "weapon?" A laser pointer is a weapon?

The potential seriousness of pointing a laser at a plane aside, c'mon..

Charges are still pending, police say.

Apparently, the article has updated since the OP, and while people are often arrested w/o charge for serious crimes, the fact that they were arrested for their actions, and then the cops/prosecutor had to figure out what said illegal actions were before charging them?? "I know that's illegal somehow, i just gotta find it"

Charges: pointing a laser at on officer. NOT at their helicopter itself, but at the officer.

Lasers can kill, they are dangerous.. Big scary lasers...






Big scary laser made cop feel unsafe.