Through the rising attractiveness of high power green laser pointers
, there are increasingly reports of lasers being pointed at airplanes and helicopters. Only in 2008 there a number of reports that received extensive media coverage. One such case in the United Arab Emirates capital of Dubai, two Arab men were charged and unlawful with pointing a laser beam at an aircraft for the period of landing.
The coverage of these cases has received has led to numerous misunderstandings and false impressions on green laser pointers and their peril to aircraft. The reason of this report is to separate fact from tales.
Background information on lasers
Just laser beams are extremely concentrated and slim beams of light and lasers can have a range calculated in tens of kilometers. A high power green laser pointer possibly will have a range of 20 to 30 kilometers but it will not be dangerous at this range. Even the great quality lasers will have a beam that rises in size by 10cm for every 100 meters. By the occasion the laser beam has covered 1 kilometer, the beam will be the size of a door way and will be unable of causing any destruction.
Green laser pointers not red, blue or orange laser pointers are the central lasers pointed at airplane because green is very much visible to the human eye than the other colors. The further reason is blue lasers and orange lasers are very costly and somewhat low powered to have wide make use of.
Real and imagined dangers
There are no commercially obtainable and few if any military lasers that can do physical harm to airplane. The three central worries and perils to a pilot's vision of pointing green laser pointers at airplane is distraction, causing glare and momentary flash blindness. A fourth concern is eye harm but this is much less possible.
It is very doubtful that any of these four risks would result in a loss of airplane or life. These risks would merely happen when a person intentionally points and tracks an airplane through a green laser pointer. These risks also merely happen when an airplane is taking of or landing and the airplane is at a low adequate height for a laser to strike the cockpit.
In brief
For the laser hobbyist who does not intentionally target an airplane, green laser pointers are secure to make use of in the open at nighttime. A good safety measure when pointing lasers at the sky is to primary confirm the sky to certify it is free of airplane and keep away from using green laser pointers around aerodromes.
For people thoughts of pointing green laser pointers, it is Federal offence in the USA and truly so. Lasers are very simple to track and offenders will give huge fines and important jail time. Pointing lasers at airplane is also a serious illegal offence in many other countries.