Bullet Hole Found in US Airways Jet

[dedalos]

Take Golfers word for it, he's a commercial pilot.

When it comes to flying an airplane I will.  What does this have to do with being a pilot?  

Did you check out that calculator?

Tell you what, I bet you you could not hit a moving car for more than a second at 1000 feet away.

[Jayhawk]

When it comes to flying an airplane I will.  What does this have to do with being a pilot?  

Did you check out that calculator?

Tell you what, I bet you you could not hit a moving car for more than a second at 1000 feet away.

Why do you have to track the plane?  Are you
saying it's impossible to even hit an aircraft for a
split second?  would you say it's as likely as a bullet hitting a plane?

[Vulcan]

When it comes to flying an airplane I will.  What does this have to do with being a pilot?  

Did you check out that calculator?

Tell you what, I bet you you could not hit a moving car for more than a second at 1000 feet away.

You assume the universal laws of physics apply to Internet/BBS physics.

[Ping]

Dedalos saw it on the intardnet, so it must be correct. 

[Tupac]

It's difficult but not impossible.

[dedalos]

Dedalos saw it on the intardnet, so it must be correct. 

A good, another Einstein joins in.  What did I see on the internet?  I just gave a link to a calculator since people like you would not be able to do the math on their own. 

[Tupac]

Yes Dedalos and not only do I mean to tell you it's happened I am telling you it's happened. Not once, not twice but hundreds of incidents are documented. Of those there are many individuals who have been quite successfully prosecuted for doing it.

Thats not eligible for debate. It's fact.

[dedalos]

Why do you have to track the plane?  Are you
saying it's impossible to even hit an aircraft for a
split second?  would you say it's as likely as a bullet hitting a plane?

Because we are talking about someone intentionally trying to hit a pilots eye with a laser.  Impossible? not, but about the same chances as winning the lotto.  You need to track his eyes in order to do any damage.  A split second contact from the side wont do it.  It gets even harder to do since you have no feed back.  You don;t even know if your beam is hitting the plane or the window or the eyes.  You would need to track it, get feed back, and adjust but your hand would not be that precise and given distance you would be all over the place.  Run some trig calculations to get an idea.  My guess is that you would be lucky to hit the plane and then, you would not even know you did.

So, not impossible but so hard that it cannot be a common occurrence.   Think about how small your target is, the speed of the plane, how big of a difference even 1 degree will make, and the fact that you have to do it from the side so you have to track the target without knowing where you are hitting.

[Russian]

This troll is pretty good.   

[Penguin]

Because we are talking about someone intentionally trying to hit a pilots eye with a laser.  Impossible? not, but about the same chances as winning the lotto.  You need to track his eyes in order to do any damage.  A split second contact from the side wont do it.  It gets even harder to do since you have no feed back.  You don;t even know if your beam is hitting the plane or the window or the eyes.  You would need to track it, get feed back, and adjust but your hand would not be that precise and given distance you would be all over the place.  Run some trig calculations to get an idea.  My guess is that you would be lucky to hit the plane and then, you would not even know you did.

So, not impossible but so hard that it cannot be a common occurrence.   Think about how small your target is, the speed of the plane, how big of a difference even 1 degree will make, and the fact that you have to do it from the side so you have to track the target without knowing where you are hitting.

You have made one incorrect assumption- that the plane is already well up in the air.  One can get quite close to an airport, and if you line up with the runway it's only a matter of time.  Furthermore, you've assumed that this is a handheld laser- a tripod eliminates the issue of stability.  An airplane landing is low, slow, and the pilot will look dead ahead to line up on the runway.

-Penguin

[dedalos]

You have made one incorrect assumption- that the plane is already well up in the air.  One can get quite close to an airport, and if you line up with the runway it's only a matter of time.  Furthermore, you've assumed that this is a handheld laser- a tripod eliminates the issue of stability.  An airplane landing is low, slow, and the pilot will look dead ahead to line up on the runway.

-Penguin

  I think you are not familiar with the alleged cases.  So now we have tripods and people standing at the end of the runway with a tripod aiming at a plane with a laser.  Give that a try and let me know how it works out for you    I ll give you this, in that set up it is very possible but only while the plane is on the runway.  Once the nose goes up, forget it.  Of coarse, you will be in the back of a police car before you even set up, but . . . .

In your opinion is what you described possible to be a common occurrence?  People with lasers on tripods waiting at the end of a runway? 

Just so you know, the cases in the news were about planes in flight, landing I think and hand held laser pointers.  Try the math and you will see that you can't really argue about it.  Unlike you, and a few others, I think I documented why I say what I say.   What about you?  Care to show me how you can track and hit a target the size of a human eye while it is moving at 150mph and you cant even see it, from lets say 1000 feet away and no aiming device other than your shaking hand?

[Penguin]

I think you are not familiar with the alleged cases.  So now we have tripods and people standing at the end of the runway with a tripod aiming at a plane with a laser.  Give that a try and let me know how it works out for you    I ll give you this, in that set up it is very possible but only while the plane is on the runway.  Once the nose goes up, forget it.  Of coarse, you will be in the back of a police car before you even set up, but . . . .

In your opinion is what you described possible to be a common occurrence?  People with lasers on tripods waiting at the end of a runway? 

Just so you know, the cases in the news were about planes in flight, landing I think and hand held laser pointers.  Try the math and you will see that you can't really argue about it.  Unlike you, and a few others, I think I documented why I say what I say.   What about you?  Care to show me how you can track and hit a target the size of a human eye while it is moving at 150mph and you cant even see it, from lets say 1000 feet away and no aiming device other than your shaking hand?

I completely agree with you about the part about the airplanes being 1,000s of feet away, but one can laser-vulch small airfields.  Police coverage is another matter entirely, but if you're stupid enough to try blinding a pilot, you're stupid enough to test your luck with the police.

It isn't likely that you could do it, but the odds are much better than the lottery.

-Penguin

[druski85]

I really don't think it matters if we speculate on it, I doubt anyone is looking for answers in our forums.

If I were into sigs, that would be it.