Sometimes I wonder about humans. I have watched the development of using a gun laser site to blind pilots as they land. At first I took it as a isolated issue. But it seems that now, like me, the news in Russia has finally understood that this is a serious problem…
So while sipping that cup of coffee this morning. I did some digging up on information about laser blinding of pilots flying aircraft. Somewhere around 30 incidents of laser blinding have occurred or were attempted in Russia since January of 2011. The first recorded incident in Russia seems to be around 1994 when a teenager tried to blind a pilot of an aircraft. The Moscow area seems to be most prone to laser blinding. Last month during June. Federal aviation authorities of Russia, put out on the news sources that there is an increasing number of laser-related attempts targeting aircraft pilots, with gun site laser targeting devises…
In fact we just had a teenager arrested in Russia this last Monday: “Police in Chechnya detained on Monday a teenager who on Sunday had aimed a laser pointer at the cockpit of a passenger aircraft as it came into land at the airport in the republic’s capital, almost blinding the pilots.”
I can see it now: The airline captain says: Welcome to Moscow, fasten your seat belt and don’t worry about the evasive maneuvers as we try to dodge the laser pointers aimed at blinding us. Just hang on tight and we will make it alive…
There are just some stupid things that people shouldn’t do and pointing laser devices at airline pilots is one of those things…
Windows to Russia!
PS: How did we progress from writing our name on the wall with a laser pointer, to blinding airline pilots? It also looks like this is common in America…