$10k Reward For Info On Anyone Who Points a Laser At Planes Goes Nationwide 264
coondoggie writes: "The FBI today said it was making national a pilot program it tried out in 12 locations earlier this year that offers up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of anyone who intentionally aims a laser at an aircraft. According to the FBI, the pilot locations have seen a 19% decrease in the number of reported laser-to-aircraft incidents. Those locations included: Albuquerque, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia."
Re:Off the Flight Path... (Score:5, Interesting)
Planes get lost, re-routed etc ALL the time.
Think a nightclub with laser advertising, plane flies overhead, or helicopter.
Can they be punished?
Major astronomical telescopes often use lasers for their adaptive optics systems. They coordinate with relevant authorities to insure they don't zap sensitive optics on satellites and post "plane spotters" outside so they can shut down the laser if a plane comes too close to the beam.
Of course, those lasers tend to be considerably more powerful (>5W) than handheld laser pointers (~5mW), so it might not be directly comparable, but I'd hope that any organization that is shooting lasers into the sky would have someone keeping an eye out for aircraft.
Re:huh (Score:5, Interesting)
Because in Egypt the military was using aircraft and snipers to shoot protesters. So it's common there now to "lase" aircraft to point them out to other people so they know to take cover.
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeat... [bbci.co.uk]
http://static2.businessinsider... [businessinsider.com]
http://s3files.core77.com/blog... [core77.com]
http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/... [s-nbcnews.com]
Notice there are hundreds of lasers on these things... yet there's a a surprising lack of blind pilots or aircraft crashing into crowds.
Yes, it's technically possible this could hard the pilot. But practically? Not very likely. These pilots circled the crowds for hours every night for months with hundreds of lasers trained on them the entire time without incident.
Re:This is getting so old. (Score:5, Interesting)
Its a knee jerk overreaction to people being so freagin retarded in this country. If you don't have laws, enforced laws, with teeth, people do whatever to the full extent of what is allowed, with no common sense whatsoever.
Now, everywhere in the world has that issue, but just not to the full extent the US has it (as far as the "first world" goes). I've lived in multiple countries for a number of years, and now I'm in the US, and its just shocking. People smoking while leaning on a no-smoking sign. People screaming on top of their lungs in the street at 3 in the morning. People letting their dog bark for hours while cheering it on. Lines while waiting at a busy bus stop? Hell no! If there's no risk of jail time, not only someone will do it, but a LOT of people will do it.
And people pointing laser pointers at anything and everything.
Its such a ridiculous society that doesn't give a flying duck about their neighbor. EVER. So you end up in a world where everything has to be fucking spelled out with someone in uniform wacking them behind the head all the time like little babies, or they won't apply the slightest bit of common sense.
Re:huh (Score:5, Interesting)
ok, and how many people do you know that have been permanently blinded by a laser? Any?
Yes. And your implication that it is ok to temporarily blind someone who relies on "see and avoid" to keep from running into other traffic is just pathetic.
How about this? [go.com] It took all of five seconds to find using Google.
I can't even find anything on a lab experiment gone wrong or military laser accident. Nothing.
Why yes, of course, every lab accident makes the 11 o'clock news so you can find out about it.
The only thing I can find are articles from pilots complaining, and they have an understandable axe to grind.
Yeah, I supposed it's a surprise that people who are the targets of attempts to blind them, even temporarily, might have "an axe to grind" with those people.
But what's the practical chance of that happening?
It's documented fact. The chance of a documented fact happening is not "damn near 0".
You're worried about people going to prison for trying to blind a pilot of an aircraft carrying upwards of 200 passengers? Here's the simple way to avoid it: DON'T SHINE A LASER POINTER AT AN AIRPLANE. Problem solved.
OT: what the hell is wrong with /. today? It keeps telling me I'm not logged in and it ignores the "ads disabled" flag completely? Five different views of the same discussion in five tries at reading it.