Re: Flash Blinded By Green Laser

From: Yukovnia (moldavia_at_sucom.sea.com)
Date: 01/02/05 

Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 23:24:53 -0600

Stuart Levy wrote:

> In article <cr47f0$cb0$1@zot.isi.edu>, Brian Tung wrote:
> >Tim Killian wrote:
> >> Your "experiment" proves that uninformed people are dangerous to
> >> themselves and others. You should not own even that 5 mW laser!
> >>
> >> The retina of the eye cannot feel pain. Just because you decided to try
> >> and destroy a portion of it doesn't mean that green lasers are eyesafe.
> >> I hope you tried this stunt in private where no one else could witness
> >> your stupidity.
> >
> >Let's put aside for the moment whether Stuart should have performed the
> >experiment, or whether he is really uninformed--which, after all, you
> >don't really know.
> >
> >If the claim is that a pilot was flash blinded at thousands of meters,
> >then Stuart's inability to flash blind himself at less than a meter is
> >entirely relevant and establishes the case that it can't have happened--
> >at least not in the way described. I hope that Stuart hasn't damaged
> >his retina indetectably, but even if he has, that wasn't the nature of
> >the claim.
>
> Well -- I wouldn't quite say that my test established that.
> I feel safe in saying that a brief direct exposure didn't do me any
> long-term harm, but "flash-blinding" doesn't sound long-term either.
> What I experienced probably qualifies as flash-blinding. It faded in
> a minute or so.
>
> Of course, I agree that it'd take a lot more power to annoy a pilot
> thousands of feet away. But then a pilot needs to be paying close
> attention when landing, and surprises might be dangerous
> even if they're well below the threshold of flash-blinding.
>
> In that way, of course, publicizing a potential "terrorist threat"
> may make misguided laser hobbyist jerks *more* dangerous,
> if a pilot interprets a brilliant green glare as an attack.
> Can't win I guess.

If you had ever spent 2 minutes in a cockpit with other's lives at stake,
you would know in a millisecond that 'interpretation' has nothing to
do with this, and there should be nothing to have to "interpret"!

People here at SAA have the luxery of discussing this, socalled.
People in cockpits dont have that luxery. If you dont see that, you
dont see anything!

John, Lt Col USAF retired -

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