posted on Jul, 26 2011 @ 01:28 PM
I actually had to laugh at an old episode of CSI Miami I saw a few days ago, where a guy who was really annoyed by the noise of planes brought one
down with a green laser pointer. They actually state on the show that it's a green laser under 5mW, yet it physically burned the corneas of the pilot
who was flying thousands of feet in the air. He actually had burns on the surface of his eye.
This must have been aired during all the paranoia about lasers, but it was complete garbage! Yes, laser pointers can distract pilots, but that's it.
I have a green laboratory laser that is rated at something like 175mW, and I can just about feel it burn from a few feet away.
Most ordinary pointers are 1-2mW which can only cause damage to the eye if you stare into the beam. Even though you can now buy 1-2W lasers that can
cut through materials, I don't think I've heard of any assaults with lasers for years when they first became available.
It was a fad toy to the fools that used them for no good. As someone has already said, banning them won't make them go away when anyone with a little
technical skill can find a video on YouTube and make one from any of the lasers you would find in the home.
I have a friend who has a pilots license and is currently training to fly commercial aircraft. Lasers were mentioned in training, but they say you
would have to have one mounted on a tripod and be able to point it perfectly at one window of a plane that is flying hundreds of miles an hour. Even
then, it's so far away all it would do is make the cockpit glow a pleasant green!
If they are banned in the UK, it will just follow everything else that was banned for no good reason, because they listen to the media who ALWAYS get
it right!