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GungnirSniper writes "The US FBI has been working with the FAA and the Air Line Pilots Association to crack down on people pointing lasers at aircraft. "Reported incidents of laser attacks on aircraft in flight in the US have increased more than 1,000 percent since 2005, according to the FAA, from 283 up to 3,960 in 2013 an average of 11 incidents a day."
Per the Air Line Pilots Association, "reports of aircraft laser illuminations in the U.S. have increased sharply over the past few years-to 3,960 last year from 2,836 in 2010."
Sergio Patrick Rodriguez, 26, now has the dubious distinction of being sentenced to "14 years in federal prison, a term prosecutors believe to be among [California's] longest for such a crime." Rodriguez's gang membership and criminal record were likely factors in his sentence, as was using a laser that is called 13 times more powerful than most laser pointers.(Previous coverage of Rodriguez here.)"
Has anyone seen this happen or experienced it as a pilot or aircraft passenger?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 13 2014, @10:18AM
No, the reported incidents are becoming more frequent. As always happens when there is a crackdown on something.
Just like when the police is doing a state wide traffic law campaign, the number of speeding tickets increase. That does not mean that people drive faster when the police is watching.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by hankwang on Thursday March 13 2014, @10:56AM
I don't think it's only because of an increase in reporting rate. Those lasers are getting more powerful/cheaper. I bought my first laser pointer (1 mW red 650 nm) in 1995 for the equivalent of EUR 45 (not corrected for inflation), which would only be mildly annoying if they hit your eye from a kilometer distance. (Low power, wavelength for which your eye is not very sensitive and it doesn't readily kill night vision)
Now you can get those ones for EUR 2, green 5 mW ones for $15, and there are online shops selling 100 mW green laser "pointers" for $100. Even if they don't damage the eye given the low exposure time of a hand-held device aimed at a moving object, and because of the beam divergence, it sounds like they will kill night vision.
Anyway, in Netherlands (or entire EU?) lasers above 1 mW (or rather, above class 2), are not allowed to be sold as laser pointers. It has been like that for the last 10 years or so. I don't recall having seen reports in the local media of "air traffic lasering".
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by DIMT on Thursday March 13 2014, @12:20PM
I believe it has more to do with the vast increase in laser pointer/plane stories in the news of late than the price. If you make the public aware something happens, it will happen more as people emulate what they have heard about.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bradley13 on Thursday March 13 2014, @12:29PM
I also live in Europe, and yes, there are plenty of incidents [laserpointersafety.com]. Just not quite the same hysteria as gets kicked up by the US media, when a new topic crops up.
It's easy to order the 100mw lasers from countries where they are unregulated. Customs cannot check every package, so most of them are delivered. Here in Switzerland, there have been a couple of recent cases of them being used against trains. Granted, your train doesn't crash as a result, but it's still dangerous if the train is coming up on a station, or crossing, or whatever.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.