[Laser] Laser Pointer Incident Forces Emergency Landing of USCG Surveillance Jet

[John Kaufmann]

Some laser pointers that are being sold today are not eye safe, especially
those in the green part of the spectrum.  In the worst case, the FAA is
concerned about eye safety, but more generally it's about distraction or
temporary dazzling of pilots and air crew.  The FAA and DoD take these
matters very seriously. Do a search under "Laser Clearinghouse".

73, John W1FV


-----Original Message-----
From: laser-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:laser-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
On Behalf Of bernieS
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 3:32 PM
To: Laser Communications
Subject: [Laser] Laser Pointer Incident Forces Emergency Landing of USCG
Surveillance Jet

While it could be a distraction to a jet crew member, how could a "handheld
laser pointer" beam that has diverged over a distance of many thousands of
feet to a jet flying overhead possibly cause any retinal damage, or require
an emergency landing and hospitalization of that crew member?

Even this FAA/USAF video admits, "In the scenario of cockpit laser
illuminations, permanent physical damage to the eye is highly unlikely.  The
lasers involved in cockpit laser strikes, for the most part, will not cause
physical damage to the eye due to variables such as length of exposure,
intensity, and/or proximity." 
http://www.laserpointersafety.com/page52/2009FAAvideo/2009FAAvideo.html

It seems to me that government authorities continue to grossly misrepresent
the facts and actual risk of retinal damage in these laser pointer
incidents.  This could erroneously lead to crackdowns on amateur LASER DX
experimentation.

-bernieS


http://www.hstoday.us/channels/us-coast-guard/single-article-page/laser-inci
dent-forces-emergency-landing-of-coast-guard-jet.html

Laser Incident Forces Emergency Landing of Coast Guard Jet

By: Mickey McCarter
11/07/12

A crew member onboard a US Coast Guard (USCG) HU-25 Guardian aircraft flying
over Portland, Texas was hospitalized after being struck in the eyes by a
handheld laser pointer, the agency said Tuesday.

The Dassault Falcon 20 jet, manufactured by French company Dassault
Aviation, was forced to make an emergency landing Monday as it approached
Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi, the Coast Guard said. The Coast
Guard employs the medium-range surveillance aircraft for search and rescue,
illegal drug interdiction, environmental protection and other missions.

"Whether this happened to our Coast Guard aircraft flying on a search and
rescue mission, a student Navy pilot just learning to fly, or an airliner
carrying a plane full of passengers, the public needs to be aware of the
dangers associated with pointing a laser at any aircraft," USCG Lt. Philip
Thisse, the commander of the affected aircraft, said in a statement.

Thisse added, "The laser directly hit one of our crewmembers while
conducting an instrument approach and it filled the cockpit with a blinding
light. We had to conduct an emergency landing and one of our crewmembers was
sent to the Bay Area Emergency Room. Either malicious or just an
irresponsible act, lasing an aircraft poses a significant hazard to the
lives of aircrew and impacts our ability to respond to people in distress."

The crewmember, who suffered "temporary vision impairment," is expected to
make a full recovery.

The Coast Guard has faced a number of lasing incidents this year. 
This was the third overall interference of air operations at Coast Guard Air
Station Corpus Christi since June.

On Aug. 8, the Coast Guard reported a helicopter aircrew was blinded by a
green laser while conducting surveillance to uncover the source of emergency
flares near Garden City Beach, SC. That attack was the third in three weeks
experienced by USCG aircraft in the Grand Strand, a beach resort area
stretching from Little River, SC, to Georgetown, SC.

USCG Sector Charleston sent a boat from Coast Guard Station Georgetown to
carry on the search after the helicopter was forced to land around 1:45am
that morning. As the boat was not as fast as the helicopter, the search was
delayed for about two hours.

Lasing incidents in the Grand Strand have numbered so high that the Coast
Guard has deemed it "very high risk."

Congress acted this year to officially criminalize lasing attacks on
government and commercial aircraft. Section 311 of the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (Public Law
112-95), signed by President Barack Obama on Feb. 14, made it a federal
offense to aim a laser pointer at an aircraft in US airspace. Offenders face
a fine of up to $250,000 and five years in prison.

The FAA reported a 902 percent increase in lasing incidents from 2005 to
2011.

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