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Pope Francis's Plane Reports Laser Incident

posted by martyb on Friday February 19 2016, @11:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the blinded-by-the-light dept.

takyon writes:

In yet another laser beam incident, crew on a flight carrying Pope Francis reported a laser beam sighting to air traffic control in Mexico City:

Alitalia flight AZ4000 was travelling from Havana with the Pope on board, and was preparing to land when the laser was spotted.
No crew or passengers were injured by the beam, the airline added.

[...] "This is yet another incident that shows how serious and widespread the issue of laser attacks on aircraft is," said Jim McAuslan, General Secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), in response to the case involving the Pope's plane. "Modern lasers have the power to blind and the potential to dazzle and distract pilots during critical phases of flight," he told the BBC. "Shining a laser at an aircraft is illegal and dangerous and puts all those on board and on the ground nearby at completely unnecessary risk."

Aboard the plane headed from Rome to Mexico, the Pope said that contraception may be the "lesser evil" for women at risk of catching the Zika virus. In comments made on the ground, he chastised Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump for his plan to build a wall on the Mexican border.

In another story from the UK laser crime beat, Englishman Philip Houghton has been sentenced to 20 weeks in prison for admitting to shining a laser pen at a Humberside Police helicopter that was investigating a shooting.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @09:38PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 19 2016, @09:38PM (#307083)

    Are any of these true? Or are they true by nature that they've been in fortune files and usenet for decades? I took one at random, the burping prohibition in Halstead, and I can't find any actual law anywhere, just the same lists that you put up.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 20 2016, @12:50AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 20 2016, @12:50AM (#307186)

    Is it safe to assume they are fake then? Apparently it is illegal to post the actual laws online so people can check:

    Government officials have threatened "rogue archivist" Carl Malamud with legal action many times for his efforts to make public government documents widely available for free, but the state of Georgia has set a new standard for fighting this ridiculous battle: It's suing Malamud for infringing its copyright of state laws by -- horrors -- publishing them online.

    The state's lawsuit, filed last week in Atlanta federal court, accuses Malamud of piracy -- and worse, of "a form of 'terrorism.'" His offense: Through his website, public.resource.org, he provides members of the public access to a searchable and downloadable scan of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated -- that is, the entire body of state law. The state wants a court order forcing Malamud to stop.

    http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-state-of-georgia-copyright-wall-20150727-column.html [latimes.com]