Reporting a Laser Strike

[HiLo]

Had the pleasure of experiencing a Laser strike flying night VFR in the Brantford area. Didn't report it, but if I had wanted to, who should I have done this to? Toronto Terminal? Or waited to get back to Hamilton and informed tower?

[Braun]

Had the pleasure of experiencing a Laser strike flying night VFR in the Brantford area. Didn't report it, but if I had wanted to, who should I have done this to? Toronto Terminal? Or waited to get back to Hamilton and informed tower?

Report to ATC, always.

[Married a Canadian]

Report to whoever you are talking to at the time (ATC wise)

[linecrew]

You can fill out a report afterwards as well. Link on this page:

https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/ ... u-1068.htm

[AirMail]

Please report it! Those Aholes who do that need to be caught and punished before additional pilots need to be treated for temporary blindness, or worse a crash.

[HiLo]

Report hath been filed. Hopefully the mighty Transport Canada smites whoever was stupid enough to do that. I also advised the OPP of the occurrence, since it happened in their patrol area.

Thanks for the link and the advice.

[ahramin]

As stated best practice is to report it to ATC or FSS as soon as it happens. Whoever is in range will do. If the police have an aircraft in the area they fly over the site and often the perpetrator will light them up, making it very easy be identified.

[Rudderless]

the most important thing is to try and identify where it came from. Obviously it is difficult to pinpoint the source, but the more specific you can be the better. It is impossible for the police to locate the source after the fact. Plus it doesn't matter who you report it to. ATC and police authorities have information sharing agreements in this regard.

[cdnpilot77]

The police officer who took our report a couple Sunday's ago at YYZ had a blackberry with about 75 questions on it that he had to ask. Some of them were fairly redundant, but more than half were the location of the laser source and location in relation to the airplane. So, if you can nail that down then it will make their job finding these a-holes that much easier.

It was about 15minutes of our time, as with a couple other crews that night, to give the report and apparently they caught him that same night when he wisely lasered a police helicopter. So, I would say 15mins well spent.

We simply told ATC on the ground after turning off the active. By the time we taxied in, gave the pax the boot and put the airplane to bed, the officer was waiting to take the report.

[karmutzen]

I don't bother to report, maybe I would if it was one of the Russian lasers from one of their patrol boats. The rinky-dink dollar-store pencil lasers are no big deal, just part of the intrigue of night flying. I don't care for staying up any later than I have to to field the 75 questions that are going to come your way.

I've been zapped a few times, once with a student pilot working on a night rating. Chilliwack, midnight, nobody to talk to, seemed to be coming from a pig farm across the freeway. Told the student it was a rite of passage, part of his night rating training, and the blah blah, what color laser, location it comes from - but don't look at it, etc. And he could do the boy scout thing and report it, nothing would happen, and I'd be asleep in bed while he went through the process.

[rxl]

I don't bother to report, maybe I would if it was one of the Russian lasers from one of their patrol boats. The rinky-dink dollar-store pencil lasers are no big deal, just part of the intrigue of night flying. I don't care for staying up any later than I have to to field the 75 questions that are going to come your way.

I've been zapped a few times, once with a student pilot working on a night rating. Chilliwack, midnight, nobody to talk to, seemed to be coming from a pig farm across the freeway. Told the student it was a rite of passage, part of his night rating training, and the blah blah, what color laser, location it comes from - but don't look at it, etc. And he could do the boy scout thing and report it, nothing would happen, and I'd be asleep in bed while he went through the process.

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to report issues like this.

Don't slough this off as a "boy scout thing". The reporting of safety concerns - especially malicious threats to an aircraft in flight - is a big part of your job as pilot in command.

If there's an issue ahead that may impact the safety of your flight and someone has previously encountered it, wouldn't you want to know?

Maybe you need to educate yourself a little bit about the effects of laser light on the human eye.

[HiLo]

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mobile/lase ... -1.2535792

The OPP don't take that stuff lightly. Glad to know.

[Big Pistons Forever]

I don't bother to report, maybe I would if it was one of the Russian lasers from one of their patrol boats. The rinky-dink dollar-store pencil lasers are no big deal, just part of the intrigue of night flying. I don't care for staying up any later than I have to to field the 75 questions that are going to come your way.

I've been zapped a few times, once with a student pilot working on a night rating. Chilliwack, midnight, nobody to talk to, seemed to be coming from a pig farm across the freeway. Told the student it was a rite of passage, part of his night rating training, and the blah blah, what color laser, location it comes from - but don't look at it, etc. And he could do the boy scout thing and report it, nothing would happen, and I'd be asleep in bed while he went through the process.

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to report issues like this.

Don't slough this off as a "boy scout thing". The reporting of safety concerns - especially malicious threats to an aircraft in flight - is a big part of your job as pilot in command.

If there's an issue ahead that may impact the safety of your flight and someone has previously encountered it, wouldn't you want to know?

Maybe you need to educate yourself a little bit about the effects of laser light on the human eye.

^ What he said

[old_man]

AIC 5/15 Pilot Procedures When Exposed to Laser and Other Directed Bright Light Sources

[JasonE]

Reported a laser strike....I just HAPPEN to have the GoPro running and can even identify the house.

[JasonE]

For those who have never seen one:

[SuperchargedRS]

I've been lased a couple times, not blinding and sure not a reason for a crash, it's a little over blown and dramatized, much like drones.

Personally I report it if I'm talking to ATC at the time, those people are idiots and deserve the police annoyance, however from my experience I wouldn't invest anymore time in the matter other than that.

[snakesonaplane]

Reported a laser strike....I just HAPPEN to have the GoPro running and can even identify the house.

It may not have been an individual with a laser. Apprently certain Christmas lights that light up the front of people's homes have become very popular this year and rely on lasers. I was out flying the other night and I experienced what seemed like countless laser strikes due to this.

[GyvAir]

For those who have never seen one:

Was that frame taken from your own GoPro footage?

I've been lased a couple times, not blinding and sure not a reason for a crash, it's a little over blown and dramatized, much like drones.

There are lasers and then there are lasers. What type and power of laser were you hit with? From what distance, direction and angle? What were the atmospheric and ambient light conditions at the time? What type of material was your windshield constructed with? How sensitive to bright lights are your eyes in particular?
While most laser strikes are likely in the nuisance category, I don't think a blanket statement that it's no big deal is quite fair, given the wide range of experiences possible.

2011-12-eye-and-viz-hazard-chart-1-mrad.gif (65.7 KiB) Viewed 3235 times

If I read correctly, the larger ones in this photo are 1W models, which according to the 2011 article, were the largest readily available to the public size at the time.

Array.jpg (29.51 KiB) Viewed 3235 times

[hazatude]

It's attempted murder as far as I'm concerned.

[JasonE]

Yes that photo is a frame from my Gopro video. It was definitely not Christmas lights as I was tracked a few miles and hit repeatedly. The police were not helpful and I feel they thought it was a waste of their time. Even with a video confirming the address they did not pursue it or look at the video. By the time an officer from the correct area contacted me, it was over 3 hours after I reported it.

It was a fairly strong laser, and it felt like I had welding flash for a few hours. My windshield is fairly clear and newish, we were at 1400ft AGL. It happened not long after takeoff, and the location is almost directly in the path of our main runway. I was quite surprised how much it actually lit up the cockpit. After the first strike I just watched the gauges and didn't look outside till they stopped.

So far I feel it was a waste of time reporting it, other than maybe they'll do more next time. It's a fairly small community, so I bet it wouldn't take much effort to track them down. Someone want to come fly a few laps and I'll wait around the address?

[I_Drive_Planes]

Yes that photo is a frame from my Gopro video. It was definitely not Christmas lights as I was tracked a few miles and hit repeatedly. The police were not helpful and I feel they thought it was a waste of their time. Even with a video confirming the address they did not pursue it or look at the video. By the time an officer from the correct area contacted me, it was over 3 hours after I reported it.

It was a fairly strong laser, and it felt like I had welding flash for a few hours. My windshield is fairly clear and newish, we were at 1400ft AGL. It happened not long after takeoff, and the location is almost directly in the path of our main runway. I was quite surprised how much it actually lit up the cockpit. After the first strike I just watched the gauges and didn't look outside till they stopped.

So far I feel it was a waste of time reporting it, other than maybe they'll do more next time. It's a fairly small community, so I bet it wouldn't take much effort to track them down. Someone want to come fly a few laps and I'll wait around the address?

Giving this story to the local news media might be a way to get some action. Nothing motivates the police to actually do something like negative press.

[photofly]

Especially when the local rag compares the attitude of plod with what happened to this guy:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/201 ... helicopter

[anonymity]

http://www.laserpointersafety.com/laser ... asses.html
Looks like law enforcement pilots are wearing these and are being marketed towards pilots in general, I think I will look into a pair of these myself

[photofly]

"The smell of snake oil is strong in this one. "


I prefer a pair of these:
http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Joo_J ... Sunglasses