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US warns China after lasers injure American pilots in Africa
The United States has issued a formal warning to China after personnel at the Asian country's military base in Djibouti used lasers to interfere with U.S. military aircraft, minorly injuring two pilots, according to the Pentagon.
Top Defense Department spokeswoman Dana White told reporters Thursday that the U.S. is confident the Chinese are behind the "very serious incidents," which have increased in the past few weeks.
"There have been two minor injuries. This activity poses a true threat to our airmen. We have formally demarched the Chinese government. And we've requested that that Chinese investigate these incidents," White said during a Pentagon briefing.
The U.S. government, meanwhile, has warned airmen to be cautious when flying in certain areas in Djibouti, in Africa, due to the recent incidents.
Also at CNN.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @05:12PM (12 children)
This is from the same people that think 2 mW laser pointers cause "very serious incidents" over a range of 5 km or more. I'd take it with a large grain of salt.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday May 04 2018, @05:23PM
it would be stupid for the Chinese to provoke the US there, now, abd the US has a long history of questionable "casi belli" under their belt. OTOH if the chinks are playing the long game they may want to purposefully have the yanks protest over this and play the victim...
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday May 04 2018, @05:56PM (10 children)
If your pilot, even briefly or momentarily...
Then that can result in everyone onboard dying and the loss of all cargo, an expensive aircraft, and whatever it hits on the ground.
To call that merely a "serious incident" is about right.
I criticised [soylentnews.org] the British pilot's association when they called it "serious, widespread laser attacks on aircraft", which I thought went a bit far. But "incident" means something out of the ordinary happened, without accompanying "accident." That's a good description.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday May 04 2018, @06:11PM (4 children)
When you are surprised, maybe.
Otherwise let's not be too dramatic about pilots falling over Hollywood-style:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAfagq8PjpM [youtube.com]
https://youtu.be/W8HwGdx-jRQ?t=679 [youtu.be]
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday May 04 2018, @06:29PM (3 children)
Only when the laser flash comes at an unexpected moment would a pilot be surprised.
Unfortunately, that pretty much is the only moment in which the event tends to happen.
Leaving the pilots as likely to be surprised as not. Right?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday May 04 2018, @06:47PM (2 children)
True.
On the other hand the FAA has 28000 laser incident reports from 2011 to 2015 [arstechnica.com], and zero crashes.
It's something bad which needs to be addressed, but it's not exactly the worst criminals-who-deserve-decades-in-jail problem we have...
(Score: 5, Funny) by Immerman on Friday May 04 2018, @06:59PM
True, but nobody's throwing politicians in jail, so we have to come up with some way to meet the quotas...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @06:24AM
28000?!?
What about a defend against this kind of attack?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @08:07PM (2 children)
It also *could* result in the spontaneous materialization of pink unicorns. Admittedly, the odds of unicorns appearing are very, very, very low. About the same odds as an accident occurring, which so far is none. No unicorns and no accidents.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday May 04 2018, @10:47PM (1 child)
If you believe that there are no air accidents in history resulting from a disoriented or distracted pilot, then your universe--apparently it also features unicorns--probably isn't as similar to the one in which these events take place as you had first assumed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @02:16AM
If you believe that there have been air accidents in history resulting from a disoriented or distracted pilot caused by laser pointers then it is your view of the universe that has deviated from reality.
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Saturday May 05 2018, @03:27AM (1 child)
Won't matter in short order. Human pilots won't be needed soon. The next tanker will be drone. the next fighters will be drones. I imagine cargo will be as well. Problem solved.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @07:53AM
Drone...no onboard human pilot, ergo rules about use of lasers capable of blinding no longer apply, so expect the norm to become 'painting' them with increasingly higher powered beams as they become available in an attempt to 'degrade' the ability of the onboard cameras to do their jobs.