Laser Light Shone Into Cockpit

[Bazile]

I don't know how you would trace the culprit ; but traced he/she should be , and hang , drawn and quartered - well prosecuted at least .


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35575861

[bednobs]

and made to pay back all extra charges incurred by virgin, which will not be inconsidereable

[Canary42]

1440 cases in UK in 2014. Shocking stats.

[agchristie]

Yes, very dangerous as light can refract throughout the cockpit causing blindness to the pilot.

Previous cases have resulted in successful prosecutions where the pilot has been able to work with police dog handlers on the ground when attempts to discard laser pens have occurred with the culprit hiding.

Punishments can vary however from small fines to terms of imprisonment.

[jackthehat]

I'm sure there could be a range of 'low-level' lasers developed for amusing and exercising the cat and for use with Power-point presentations?

[weecalf]

How did it shine in the pilots eyes don't understand if the plane is thousands of feet in the air .

[Bazile]

A 1 milliwatt beam can reach a distance of 20 kilometers (12 miles)

[Peter Pedant]

no - - - BLINDED by his own laser !
that will teach him ....

a thousand cases a year and not a thousand turn-backs
so I would like to know the back-story

I suppose the pilot thought he had had a retinal burn
whereas in fact it was just an after image....

[UKSWF]

What legitimate use would have for owning one of these laser lights? Do you use them for hunting or welding? I really have no idea, I had a little thing which was useful when I was giving presentations but why else would you need one?

[mikey4444]

I would have thought the chances of the culprit being found are very slim.

[hc4361]

Many are arrested here in the West Midlands - in fact one person was arrested last night after shining a laser at a police helicopter. They can see exactly where it is coming from
Here's an arrest from last year:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/22/cardiff-man-jailed-for-shining-laser-pen-at-planes

And a good report from 2014
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2795836/moment-police-helicopter-tracks-party-goer-shone-laser-pen-pilot-s-eyes-officers-ground-arrest-him.html

You have to wonder at the mentality of people that do this

[hc4361]

Mikey, follow the police helicopter pilots on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/NPASBirmingham

[Canary42]

Most prosecutions seem to come from police helicopter cases - the perpetrators being too dim to realise the helicopter radios a ground-based car and guides it to the source.

[whiskeryron]

Should they not be made illegal & banned from being on sale ?

[Ken4155]

hc4361 @ 1525; they are probably the same sort of people who place debris on railway lines and drop slabs of concrete off motorway bridges. If and when caught, they should be charged with attempted murder, imho.

[weecalf]

Would the laser light not have had to be level with the window of the plane to shine through to get in the pilots eyes ?

[hc4361]

No, weecalf, the beam hits the screen and refracts. You can see what the pilot sees in the second link I posted at 15.25

[Dogsbody2]

Whilst not condoning what happened, one wonders if Virgin decided to make a publicity issue of this incident.

Incident happened about seven minutes into flight. Decision to turn back taken after about one hour, 500 miles travelled, and plane over NW Ireland. How does that compute?

[hc4361]

Dogsbody, the pilot expected to recover but was still feeling the effects over an hour later and needed medical treatment.

[Bazile]

Dogsbody2

//Virgin Atlantic said the flight returned to the west London airport as a "precautionary measure" after the co-pilot reported feeling unwell.//

I assume that the situation (although the pilot not feeling well ) was not a life threatening scenario .

Therefore it would make sense to return to Heathrow , which is virgin's base , where they would have their services readily available - and for example where a replacement pilot would be more easily obtained ; rather than the plane being stuck in Ireland somewhere , and increasing the delay

[237SJ]

..and anyway, they would have had to go around for ages dumping fuel if they had decided to land in Ireland