Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by CoolHand on Thursday February 18 2016, @03:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the promoting-laser-beams-on-sharks dept.

A Virgin Atlantic flight from London's Heathrow Airport destined for New York was forced to return following a "laser beam incident":

A flight heading to New York turned back to London Heathrow Airport after a "laser beam incident", Virgin Atlantic has confirmed. A crew member is recorded saying to Irish air traffic control that they had a "medical issue with one of the pilots after a laser incident after take-off". It happened at 20:13 GMT, shortly after take-off, the company said, before flight VS025 returned as a precaution. There were 252 passengers and 15 crew on board. Metropolitan Police tweeted: "Aircraft forced to return to Heathrow after being hit by a laser strike... #laserstrike CAD4."

[...] A new law introduced in 2010 means people could be charged with "shining a light at an aircraft in flight so as to dazzle the pilot".

Janet Alexander, a commercial airline pilot, said shining a laser beam into a cockpit was a very dangerous thing to do. "It's unfortunately becoming an increasingly problematic occurrence. It's very like a lightning strike in that it's very instantaneous, very, very bright light, which is dazzling basically," she said. "And of course if it's targeted in exactly the wrong way you could permanently damage someone's sight."

A total of 414 "laser incidents" in the UK were reported to the Civil Aviation Authority between January and June 2015. The highest number of them was at London Heathrow Airport - 48 were reported during this period. In 2014, there were 1,440 incidents in the UK, with 168 at Heathrow, according to the CAA.

The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) has called for lasers to be classified as "offensive weapons" and banned in the UK, following the Virgin Atlantic flight VS025 laser incident. Members cite the frequency of laser incidents and say the 2010 legislation on lasers isn't tough enough.


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by vux984 on Thursday February 18 2016, @06:11PM

    by vux984 (5045) on Thursday February 18 2016, @06:11PM (#306455)

    In my experience, I generally only have issues with the ones on trucks, especially if they've got oversize wheels & raised suspensions. Their headlights are above eye level in a typical compact or sports car. Then even if they they are pointing 'down', they're still aimed right in my face. They're nearly as bad behind me as they are in oncoming as they shine in through the side rearview mirrors.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday February 19 2016, @05:57PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday February 19 2016, @05:57PM (#307002)

    That's exactly why I think high-mounted headlights should be completely banned; all headlights should be mounted at small-car level, even on trucks, to avoid blinding people through their side mirrors.

    I've long thought it'd be really cool to make an automatic side mirror control system which detects truck headlights in the rearview mirror, then automatically adjusts the mirror's position to shine that light back into the truck driver's face.