[Laser] Laser injures Delta pilot's eye
TWOSIG at aol.com
TWOSIG at aol.com
Mon Oct 4 21:47:42 EDT 2004
I have been following the comments on the news story. A few comments from my
perspective. I have no conclusions, just some thoughts to put a few
boundarises on the discussion.
>From various news reports the aircraft was a 737 about 5 miles from the
airport. Typical landing pattern is at an angle of about 3 degrees. At a range of
about 30,000 feet, the aircraft's altitude would be 1500 feet, probably less.
Approach speed of a 737 is between 100 and 160 knots depending on weight and
flap setting. The aircraft would have been less than 3 miniutes from
landing, which would put the flight crew very busy, looking both in and out of the
cockpit.
The reported event involved a green laser. Green is a fact, which I can only
assume was accurately reported. That would rule out any red laser pointers.
If it was a laser might be questioned, but to the general public only a laser
is bright enough to cause eye damage at night in an airliner.
Some supposition, that the pilot would have been injured in the time before
he could blink, which is reported to be about 0.25 seconds, during which time
the aircraft would have traveled about 42 feet. The cockpit window would
provide good visibility from straight ahead to each side, but not down. On the
assumption that the beam came from the ground, the possible "footprint" is
bounded, though large.
The beam would have to have been bright enough to cause damage to the pilot's
eye and large enough, or controled enough to follow the aircraft's path. The
higher the energy density, the faster the eye damage, the smaller the beam
had to be, or the less time it had to "track" the aircraft.
If it is a terrorist tactic, it will not be an isolated incident. Nor will
future incidents be isolated to Salt Lake City. The less press this gets, the
less likely it will be attractive as a weapon. And the less likely some
Washington Bureau-idiot will make experimenting with, or even possession of lasers
into a federal crime.
James
N5GUI
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