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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.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday February 20 2016, @01:44PM
I do see some grey area here where perhaps the word "attacks" could be metaphorically applied to shining lights as in this instance, and the light-shining is certainly widespread, and is certainly a problem--no arguments there, really.
What I was trying to get across is that McAuslan is specifically claiming attacks by offensive weapons. Plenty of British and other planes have been attacked in a widespread manner by offensive weapons during the last hundred years, notably during two pretty involved wars. The comparison of that to blinking lights doesn't hold up, however risky the blinking lights may be.
I believe it would be better to work the problem from the angle of dangerous behavior on the part of laser-outlaw miscreants, rather than to claim widespread attacks on aircraft by offensive weapons, because I think the latter falsely lumps laser pointers in with anti-aircraft missiles, armed enemy aircraft, and the like.
I think that McAuslan is using this sort of language to overstate the problem in emotional terms.
Genuinely, I think the problem is bad enough without doing that. Anyone who endangers the lives and safety of others in such a way by deliberately (or otherwise) interfering with aircraft operations with a laser (or by whatever means) deserves the really stiff punishment coming to him.