Fogbow

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed last week that Houston leads all Texas cities in laser strikes with 265 so far in 2024. For comparison sake, the FAA recorded 694 laser strikes—incidents of people pointing lasers up at cockpits—in all of Texas between January and July 2024. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has seen nearly as many strikes as Houston with 255, but after that, the numbers drop drastically.
In other words, some Houstonians are really into shining lasers up at airplanes.

It's an illegal habit, too. Those who are caught shining lasers at aircraft can be fined up to $11,000 per violation and up to $30,800 for multiple incidents.
The number of laser-shining incidents has risen consistently since 2018, with a large increase taking place over the last two years. In 2022, the FAA recorded 9,457 of these incidents, but in 2023, that number rose to 13,304 incidents. Already the FAA has recorded 6,958 laser strikes in 2024, meaning we're on pace to outshine last year.

The FAA says a laser strike can incapacitate pilots. In November 2022, federal prosecutors say a pilot landed a two-person plane in western Washington while blinded as a man tracked the craft's descent for about 12 to 13 seconds.

"I had to figure out how to land," the pilot, Jonathon Fay, said at a sentencing hearing for Christopher Harris, who after his capture was sent to prison for eight months in January 2024.

bill_g wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2024 9:58 am Two thoughts:

1 - I've never understood how a small laser pointer could blind someone from hundreds or thousands of feet away.

2 - And I've never understood why people aim lasers at aircraft overhead.

Sales of disposable single-use vapes in the UK are now at least 360m per year – the equivalent of providing lithium for the batteries of more than 6,700 electric vehicles. The cost of recycling all the single-use vapes bought in the UK could be up to £200m per annum.

tek wrote: ↑Tue Sep 10, 2024 8:29 am 1 - I guess you've never worked with lasers?

bill_g wrote: ↑Tue Sep 10, 2024 12:40 pm

tek wrote: ↑Tue Sep 10, 2024 8:29 am 1 - I guess you've never worked with lasers?

No more or less than anyone else in telecom. The chart I posted above suggests a low power laser pointer is harmful to less than one mile which would include most unpressurized civilian aircraft, and commercial aircraft during ascent and descent.

Foggy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2024 9:07 pm Mañana es Viernes (Friday) the Thirteenth.

Frater I*I wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2024 9:20 pm

Foggy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2024 9:07 pm Mañana es Viernes (Friday) the Thirteenth.

My lucky day....

Foggy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2024 9:34 pm Me too also, I was born on Friday the Thirteenth. In 1952.

MN-Skeptic wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2024 9:54 pm

Foggy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2024 9:34 pm Me too also, I was born on Friday the Thirteenth. In 1952.

The only Friday the Thirteenth in 1952 was in June.

roadscholar wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2024 9:13 am “Friday the thirteenth comes on a Friday this month.” ——Pogo Possum