Delta Airline plane hit by a laser

[Florida_Geek]

On Fox a reporter for the Washington Times... I know I know said that in tomorrows paper will be a piece about a Delta plane begin hit by a red laser and blinding the pilot for a couple minutes, outside Salt Lake City....... Mmmmmm smell like the military has a new playtoy.

[Placebo]

1. The military should get all the playtoys it asks for...

FREEDOM ISN'T FREE!

[Bluebear]

4. To blind commercial US flights?

[dumpster_baby]

10. you are living in the past

Take the blinders off your eyes. You still think some bad guys want to come over and take over America, making us their slaves, huh?

Wow, you drank a lotta that Cold War-patriotism-them-dirty-commies KoolAid!

[Columbia]

17. I think he was being sarcastic

[mn9driver]

2. Military is unlikely.

Red lasers are pretty common. The spooky military ones tend to be other colors.

[krkaufman]

16. Exactly. I suspect SPECTRE. n/t

[Zero Gravitas]

3. Fox, Washington Times

there's two bastions of journalistic integrity. New military toy or just more Karl Rove fear mongering? The turrists have lasers! be AFRAID! Vote Bush!

[camero]

5. Not the whole story

The red laser missed the pilot but the cat chased the red dot and got in the pilot's hair, at which the pilot lost control of the plane until he could get the cat off.

[Pobeka]

6. LOL! n/t

[Virginian]

7. Cats are really into those lasers.

I met a cat once and asked her about laser dots.
She told me all about them. Better than catnip.

[951]

8. Sounds like you have a very unstable pilot making these

unfounded claims

[napi21]

9. Nothing seems to be online anywhere.

I checked Wash Times...nothing there yet. This sounds a little suspicious to me.

[Fuzzy LaRue]

11. Several years ago

I read about a couple of incidents like this. It turned out that the pilots had been hit by lasers being used at rock concerts as they flew over. One of them was a Pink Floyd show.

[Robb]

12. Seems pretty spurious

We used to joke about trying to hit satellites and such by lying on our backs on a cloudless night, but if you've ever played with even a laser pointer and tried to keep it steady over fifteen feet away, you can imagine how tough it would be to smack an airplane.

By hand, anyhow. It ain't the lasers, as they say, it's the targeting.

[CHIMO]

13. WMC

Weapon of mass construction.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000683CB/ref=pd_sxp_elt_l1/102-9558906-0632144

[Must_B_Free]

14. Doesn't add up

Think of the altitude of a plane...

Think of the velocity of a plane...

How does someone train a laser right through a cockpit window and keep it in the pilot's eye long enough to temporarily blind him?

[Newsjock]

15. Washington Times link here

Take it for what it's worth.
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040928-111356-3924r.htm

By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A pilot flying a Delta Air Lines jet was injured by a laser that illuminated the cockpit of the aircraft as it approached Salt Lake City International Airport last week, U.S. officials said.

The plane's two pilots reported that the Boeing 737 had been five miles from the airport when they saw a laser beam inside the cockpit, said officials familiar with government reports of the Sept. 22 incident. The flight, which originated in Dallas, landed without further incident at about 9:30 p.m. local time.

A short while later, however, the first officer felt a stinging sensation in one eye. A doctor who examined the pilot determined that he had suffered a burned retina from exposure to a laser device, the officials said.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokeswoman Yolanda Clark confirmed the incident, but declined to provide details.

... The identity of the pilot could not be learned, and Delta spokesman Anthony Black declined to comment.

more

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. Laser light shows are recognized as a hazard to aviation.

Not the little pointers, but the Las Vegas-type shows. These can cause flash blindness and other problems. http://www.laserist.org/Laserist/Safety.html