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Lasers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Aviasim
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Aviasim

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Tonight, I was doing a night flying lesson in to Birmingham airport EGBB in the UK.

It all seemed normal, the night view was amazing of the city and surrounding area...then out of nowhere I see red and green and get blinded by these lights which were laser pens. After they stopped shining in my eyes for about 40 seconds, it took another 2 minutes until my eyes re-focused their self from seeing multi-coloured circles after the lasers...hard to explain but look at a light...then look at a wall you see blue/purple circles for a while. Anyway, after fully recovering I was below the glideslope...it was 4 red lights on the PAPI and I was at 700 feet which my descent rate changed from 400 feet per min to about 1300 feet per min, I had to go-around.

I was frustrated, shocked and frightened, the ground was extremely close and I consider myself lucky that i gained my foces just in time, if it was any longer, I am pretty sure I would of crashed into a civilian area.

Anyway, after the go-around, I told the tower the reason, which they then rang the police, I was then instructed to enter a holding pattern to the North-West of the airport. Luckily a police helicopter was nearby which very quickly located those in control of the lasers that attacked me on final, they was then located by the police on ground and taken away to the cells.

Has this ever happened to you? this is no doubt the most shakiest thing I have ever experianced, especially since this was my first night flight and also first time flying into a different airfield.

I have one word to describe these type of people...SCUM

Maybe us pilots should pick out chavs at night riding their stolen motorbikes and shine them with lasers and spot-lights in their face and see how they like it. I am pretty sure they would just stop, which obviously us fixed-wing pilots can not do, and very limited of choices when as low as I was on final approach.

If this ever happens to you on either take-off or landing, just abort the take-off or go-around, let the ATC know and get them arrested before coming back around for the landing or departure.

Horrible people, horrible experiance!
 
Very crazy! I hope they will pay for that... The worst thing that happened to me so far is a very bad thermal turbulence on final on my first solo. But this obviously was nature's doing nothing like silly humans pointing lasers to your aircraft! :D
 
Glad you didnt crash Darren.

We just arrested a guy in Phoenix who was doing this to people at night. Turns out a second arrest and past issues with the guy. Bad news for him.

I remember when flying with a friend on night flight cargo runs to Orange Country from Phoenix, when crossing the sand dunes at around midnight, alot of them would shine those high intensity hand lights that you plug into the car, super bright. If you were looking down, it left that flash in your pupil for a min or two, but if you were looking straight, straight on flight, you were fine. We were also up high, perhaps 9,000 feet. We didnt have lasers then. That was still Star Wars, lol... Now you can get them at Walgreens for $7.00. Amazing..
 
:mad: This is true, people do it. Sometimes I would fly with my instructor not on a flight lesson, I just went along for the ride because for the fun and we encountered something like this on final approach into RDG ... just as we get close to the runway, some super bright lasers hit us dead ahead...it was like they were standing right in front of the runway just a few feet away....I was almost blinded and my instructor immediately configured the aircraft for a high angle of attack approach to avoid the light, he did radioed in the incident and immediately just as I turn my head back, I see a cop car heading out of the Fire Department that was by the runway into the road...I hope they got the them.

They don't understand they are toying with peoples lives, including theirs...it's people like this that have made aviation less accessible to those who love it. It's very hard for photographers to take pictures these days after 9/11 specially security at airport is tight....even at RDG there is an open parking space and you can just drive in and see the aircraft taking off......stay there long enough and a guy with a yellow shirt stops by and yells ... "you can't be here, leave now or i'll call the authorities." had it happen to me once, I left immediately!
 
It is actually awful how many pilots have had this happen to them, now including myself - didn't think it would shake me up as much as it did but anyhow... the people responsible were a group of 6 thugs aged between 17 and 27 - very immature people, however, they are now enjoying a long weekend in the police cells until their court hearing on Monday.

I personally think that people that do such a thing should get life in prison, why not? since they seem to get a joke by putting severel hundreds of peoples lifes at risk which could easily be fatal
 
If you get blinded by a laser, fire a laser guided weapon.

Problem solved.
 
Aviasim said:
After they stopped shining in my eyes for about 40 seconds, it took another 2 minutes until my eyes re-focused their self from seeing multi-coloured circles after the lasers...hard to explain but look at a light...then look at a wall you see blue/purple circles for a while.
Click to expand...

That must have been a horrendous situation for sure, and Thank God you were able to avoid disaster.

I know that hind-sight is always 20/20, but instead of looking at the lights for 40 seconds, couldn't you have simply looked away to your instrument panel, leveled-off to maintain a safe altitude, changed course (slightly) if need be to avoid looking at the lasers, and called out for an in-flight emergency and a go-around?

It is always best to immediately correct unsafe in-flight attitudes, inadvertant encroachment of an airport control zone or restricted airspace, or any situation which left uncorrected could lead to loss of control of the aircraft as you experienced by losing so much altitude. In this case, an immediate course deviation to avoid the effects of the lasers and calling out of an in-flight emergency may have also given the ATC a quicker response in order to re-route other traffic in the area which may have subsequently fallen victim to the lasers, and help to get the authorities on the ground involved more quickly as well.

As often as criminal laser tagging of aircraft occurs these days, it seems as though there should be specific training procedures for minimizing the adverse effects of a pilot's exposure to lasers.

Here in Southern California, most cases of aircraft laser tagging seem to involve Police helicopters, and I believe laser avoidance is now part of their training, because although Police helicopters are much more maneuverable than most aircraft, are not in a traffic pattern, and can quickly turn away to avoid exposure, they are also usually operating at much lower altitudes and really have to react quickly.

A military pilot on a bombing run may have to hold his course to the target, but I am fairly certain that the ATC would rather deal with your sudden deviation from an assigned course/altitude which has placed your flight in a life & death situation, than to see your AC transponder marker disappear from their screens. I am curious whether the ATC or your flight school instructor had any comments on what a pilot-in-command should do if confronted with lasers.

Please don't take my comments as criticism of your actions, you went through a harrowing ordeal and landed safely, and that is what is important.
Hopefully it will never happen to you again, but if it does happen to you or anyone else, it's nice to have a contingency plan to immediately put into effect.

We didn't have lasers to worry about back when I was flying, but my ex-military flight instructor taught me to have contigency plans for my contigency plans, and he truly enjoyed putting me through simulated engine-out forced landings down to the height of the tops of the telephone poles before giving me back the throttle. For years, whether I was walking, riding a bicycle, driving, or flying anywhere, I was constantly noting the wind direction and looking for a suitable spot for an emergency landing. ;)

Cheers
Gman
 
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Yes well since this was my first night flying lesson, my eyes were fixed to the runway threshold. I had not known this would of happened and being it my FIRST NIGHT flying/landing I was more focused on keeping an eye on the runway to make sure I got there...little did I know that I would get blinded.

But yes, I was told to do the same type of thing you told me to do, I was just under so much pressure when landing.... weather was not brilliant either.
 
Aviasim said:
Yes well since this was my first night flying lesson, my eyes were fixed to the runway threshold. I had not known this would of happened and being it my FIRST NIGHT flying/landing I was more focused on keeping an eye on the runway to make sure I got there...little did I know that I would get blinded.

But yes, I was told to do the same type of thing you told me to do, I was just under so much pressure when landing.... weather was not brilliant either.
Click to expand...


Wow, your first night flight will be easy to remember!

I guess my point was that as a pilot you should never assume things will always go according to plan, and you should never become fixated on normal.

Something unexpected may happen on the first flight (as you found out), or the 100th flight, or maybe never. That's why pilots try to enhance their odds by always performing a walk-around of their aircraft, always performing an engine run-up, always checking to make sure the controls operate as expected, etc, etc.

Anything can happen at any time, your radio can go on the fritz leaving you unable to communicate, the VOR station you are tuned to could suddenly go off-line, another pilot (who doesn't see you) at an uncontrolled airport you are on final approach to could also be on final calling in his position and landing intentions on the wrong UNICOM frequency, the wind can change leading to an approach from an unusual direction, or strong crosswinds, or another aircraft in the pattern with you could take a double laser-tag hit and become disoriented, suddenly veering off-course.

Just like a carrier pilot is at full throttle when he lands as a contigency plan to go-around should the arrestor cables fail, if you are on final you should be just as prepared to retract flaps and go-around as you are to land, just as prepared to continue ten miles or more downwind in the pattern on a busy day as you would normally be to turn base, and of course, you should always be prepared for your instructor or check-ride pilot to hijack your throttle and declare that your engine is out.

No matter what happens whether real or simulated, stay calm and immediately ask yourself "what do I do now?" and then rely on your training to keep the aircraft in the air until you can safely land.
(or until the instructor gives you your throttle back)

I kept a note pad, and if I thought of a question about emegency procedures which hadn't been covered in my training, I wrote it down and asked my instructor before, during, or after my next lesson. I never got the feeling I was bothering him, I felt more like he appreciated those questions as the logical by-product of his "be prepared" method of flight training.

I'm glad your story had a happy ending.

Cheers
Gman
 
The problem is not, for the most part, idiots saying 'Im going to shine a laser at this aircraft so I can blind the pilot' but rather 'I'm going to see how far this laser can get...ohh an aircraft!'
Most of these people don't even realise how their actions can effect pilots (even after some fairly high profile cases) they are just 'fooling around'.
 
Timmo said:
Most of these people don't even realise how their actions can effect pilots (even after some fairly high profile cases) they are just 'fooling around'.
Click to expand...

They are no different than the absolute morons who -everyday- drive around the gates at a railroad crossing...

...and wind up as yet another tragic news story.

Or the idiots who fire bullets randomly towards the sky on the 4th of July in my neighborhood (really, more "hood" than "neighbor(ly)") :mad:

Several years ago, a father was dumbfounded when his son cried out and fell over dead. He exclaimed to the police "I don't understand! I was shooting at the moon!" How could anyone be that stupid! :yikes:
 
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