Pilots Report Seeing Laser Lights While Flying

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/wdiv/20060214/lo_wdiv/3267175

Snip: <Tue Feb 14, 2:16 PM ET

Police are on alert after more than a dozen pilots reported someone shining a laser light at the plane while descending into Metro Airport.
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The incident occurred in the Dearborn and Dearborn Heights areas, where 16 pilots reported seeing the laser pointer lights near the tower at Metro Airport, Local 4 reported.

Apparently the lights were being flashed at planes on their final approach into the Detroit area. The first instance reported was near the Home Depot in Dearborn Heights, then a short time after the light originated from a neighborhood near Telegraph Road and Lehigh Road, according to police.

Police say shining a laser pointer at a plane is a felony and could lead to a dangerous situation. >

More at the link....

who is doing this and prosecute them. It is my understanding that a laser in the eye is more powerful than the sun.

I have a very hard time believing that a person on the ground could aim a laser at a moving object a fair distance away and track the THE COCKPIT by hand.

even a stopped clock is right twice a day. If they get lucky, then we have bad results.

sometime a year or so after 9/11 of someone pointing a laser to the sky and getting arrested? I think I remember that. But yes I thought it was illegal to do that? :shrug:

...It seems to me you'd have to be at a pretty exact angle, considering an eye is about the size of a postage stamp and the fuselage of the plane restricts the possible sightlines from the ground.

And then consider the plane is moving at several hundred miles per hour, and at best -- absolute best -- you'd have that laser pointer in the eye of the pilot for about a second or less from what I can figure. However, that's what co-pilots are for.

This is a fake scare. It's theoretically possible, but hardly likely.