Not the front page exposure ya want

[polishedball]

Nbcnews homepage. http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...-blinding?lite

[Ed Wesly]

This month's issue of Smithsonian Air & Space has an article about this, too! Not this incident, but in general.

Sam Goldwasser of Sam's Laser FAQ's is interviewed in the article! http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm

[colouredmirrorball]

This month's issue of Smithsonian Air & Space has an article about this, too! Not this incident, but in general.

Sam Goldwasser of Sam's Laser FAQ's is interviewed in the article! http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm

http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-to...232393221.html

[absolom7691]

As much as I hate government for stepping in with ridiculous laws in which the taxpayer foots the bill (paying for incarceration), I have to say, I don't have a problem with this at all...

"One, which went into effect in 2012, makes shining a laser at an aircraft punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $11,000. The other, long on the books, makes interfering with a flight crew punishable by up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine. "

I would rather have punishments like this on the books to make the morons pay for their stupidity rather than making importing lasers more difficult for the honest guys like us.

[The_Doctor]

As much as I hate government for stepping in with ridiculous laws in which the taxpayer foots the bill (paying for incarceration), I have to say, I don't have a problem with this at all...

"One, which went into effect in 2012, makes shining a laser at an aircraft punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $11,000. The other, long on the books, makes interfering with a flight crew punishable by up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine. "

I would rather have punishments like this on the books to make the morons pay for their stupidity rather than making importing lasers more difficult for the honest guys like us.

I agree. There is a reason why matches and lighters are easily available, but arson is a felony. (We don't use the term 'felony' legally in the UK so far as I know, but arson is a serious crime, regardless of resulting scale of damage.) This isn't just an analogy either, as lasers get stronger, it will be the strongest existing laws that deal with them best. This is especially appropriate given that lasers can now be used for arson.

EDIT:
Sam's bit: “You have to make sure this is covered as early as elementary school. You tell them, ‘Don’t shoot bright lights into the sky and at planes.’ ”
That makes sense in exactly the same way I think of it. Kids are all told 'Don't play with matches, or fire'. I remember spitting on a lightbulb when I was about 8 or 9, it was a table lamp... The glass shattered. So you instantly have three hazards, glass cuts, high voltage, and heat. Same risks Sam mentions as basic hazards of the HeNe laser. Any source of strong light has plenty of hazards that very few kids are taught.

I read on the BBC web site yesterday, of one of ten hazards of Victorian life. Amongst the alum adulterating white bread, the exploding toilets, etc, was electricity. Official advice included not approaching a plug socket with a naked flame! People really did NOT know how to use it, and the papers were full of reports of death by electrocution. It's little more than a hundred years, and people still do not grasp the dangers of electrically driven light. This is obvious because while they understand fire well enough to warn their kids, they do not warn their kids about strong electric light sources for the simple reason that they do not understand the danger themselves. They may know it's dangerous, but that's about it. To solve this problem of lasers an planes, you have to sort out the idiots from the malicious nutjobs. Education is the best way to do that, and it's best started early, and with enough detail to stop a kid from having to ask 'why' twenty times or be forced to shut up and remain an idiot.