Aaron Huffman repeatedly shined “a laser into the cockpit of a Washington State Patrol airplane,” over the Labor Day Holiday in 2014. On Tuesday, September 1 a judge sentenced Huffman to six months in jail. According to the The News Tribune story, this is not Huffman’s first run-in with the law. The judge went so far as to advise Huffman “to give up his young son for adoption.”
How did they find out it was him though?
Curious Joe. Your office laser pointer will easily “dazzle” a wind screen at 1000 feet in the dark.
This one is cheap and has a 7000 foot range.
http://www.sygmall.com/en/9020124-laser-pointer-pen/10452-2000mw-supper-power-laser-pen-pointer-pen.html
http://www.laserpointersafety.com/page52/laser-hazard_diagram/laser-hazard_diagram.html
I must be missing something. Where do people get lasers with sufficient wattage to even be able to be seen in cockpit by the pilot at 1000 feet or higher. Laser pointers surely won’t do it.
I’m no expert but I have read that more powerful devices are available online.
Even cheap dollar store lasers can easily project a beam 1000 feet. Lasers available for less than $20 will easily go a few miles.
There are. For a couple hundred bucks you can get a lasers at is visible from the ISS.
try youtube… lots of lasers easily available on ebay.
The green, astronomical lasers have been around for a while now.
Actually. A small laser pointer is more then sufficient.
The green, blue and purple laser pointers that anyone can buy are a lot more powerful than your standard red pointer (not as cheap, either). The times that I’ve had lasert pointed at me, it was green.
Yes they do. Try it and see where you spend the next 6 months. I have used laser pointers to attract the attention of people up to 5km away.
It’s easy to buy these green light lasers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtKSdy2KAW4
It has happened to me. A friend and I were flying down the beach at night, and someone on a balcony of one of the condos started lasering us. You’d be surprised how much it lights up the cockpit, especially when your eyes are dark-adjusted. It was also VERY easy to see which unity it came from. If we’d known WHICH property it was, we’d have called 911 on our cell to report them.
Fortunately, it didn’t have a direct shot at my eyes on the copilot side of the plane, and I happened to be the one flying the plane, but my friend said it was pretty blinding to him.
It’s the green lasers that are usually to blame from what I understand.
Don’t mismatch red laser with green laser!
Green laser pointer are much more powerfull and have consequences over much more far distances!
Six years would be more appropriate for carelessly endangering others people’s lives for cheap fun.