Man Points Laser at Aircraft

[Sig 210]

This guy is a real piece of work.

http://www.news8austin.com/content/y...sp?ArID=190371


Man accused of shining lasers on commercial planes
8/15/2007 6:14 PM
By: Associated Press

EL PASO, Texas -- An unemployed man accused of pointing a laser at commercial planes flying over his home was arrested after FBI agents saw the beam.

Nobody on board was hurt.

47-year-old Clinton Udet Pinckert was arrested by the FBI at his house in Clint, about 20 miles southeast of El Paso.

Pinckert is accused of attempting to disable a commercial aircraft. If convicted, Pinckert faces up to 20 years in prison.

FBI agent Andrea Simmons says complaints were received this month about four commercial planes having a laser shined on the cockpits.

The Federal Aviation Administration assisted in narrowing down the location. FBI agents who were dispatched to the Clint area saw the laser.

Agents seized the device, which is about the size of a ten-inch-long flashlight.

Simmons says there's no indication that the case has ties to terrorism.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[MattInFla]

Clever. According to another article I read, the laser he was using is a class IIIb device, capable of causing serious eye injury from either direct viewing or reflected viewing.

Matt

[HotGuns]

IF that is the case then he needs to get hammered.

[SIXTO]

Why would a 47 year old man be pointing anything (besides a camera) towards an aircaft? Seems like there is another issue at play here.

[QKShooter]

Because a Green Laser can blind the pilot and the co-pilot inside the cockpit and the guy knew it.
It was all in the news a couple of years ago.

They guy was hoping to take down a commercial aircraft obviously.

I am tired of footing the bill out of my tax dollars for these whacked out insane-a-maniacs.
Hold his eyelids open and shine his own Laser in his eyes for 5 or 10 minutes...give him a bottle of water and 6 ounces of beef jerky and drop him in the middle of the Sahara desert and tell him if he makes out alive he's a free man. Cost to the taxpayer...$6.35 + transportation to the desert.
To heck with this 20 years in comfy captivity crappola.

[Cupcake]

They put Harm missiles on warplanes (High Speed Anti Radiation Missile) that zero in on radars that guide anti aircraft missiles in vietnam. Time to put anti laser missiles on planes...at least my cessna...


***EDIT TO ADD: Here is a crazy what if: You see a guy aiming a live laser at a plane trying to land. You are packing. Now if you could walk right up to him I guess it'd be pretty easy to spoil his aim. Lets say he was over a fence you couldn't jump or whatever. Shoot or don't shoot? What if you yell at him to stop at he refuses? There might be 200 people on that plane.

[SIXTO]

Do you really see this often in your Cessna?

And to answer you question, no you cant use lethal force in that situation.

[HotGuns]

And to answer you question, no you cant use lethal force in that situation.

I'd be willing to be that IF a plane crashed due to laser, it could be articulated in court that lethal force was justifiable the next time around.

That would stop that crap.

[Cupcake]

Do you really see this often in your Cessna?

No, but then armed thugs don't threaten my life often either...missiles are too expesive anyway. Did we find that vulcan cannon re-posted anywhere?

[SIXTO]

No, but then armed thugs don't threaten my life often either...missiles are too expesive anyway. Did we find that vulcan cannon re-posted anywhere?

Dont get me wrong, I'm all for the cannons and missles or whatever.
Maybe water balloons with interesting payloads would be a cheap way out.

[HotGuns]

Maybe water balloons with interesting payloads would be a cheap way out.

Nope.
If its that interesting the water balloon wont hold it...

[bandit383]

***EDIT TO ADD: Here is a crazy what if: You see a guy aiming a live laser at a plane trying to land. You are packing. Now if you could walk right up to him I guess it'd be pretty easy to spoil his aim. Lets say he was over a fence you couldn't jump or whatever. Shoot or don't shoot? What if you yell at him to stop at he refuses? There might be 200 people on that plane.

This is in the category of "I can see the sun, but can I hit it"...just because he is aiming a laser (at least you think at the time)...doesn't mean he can hit what he is aiming at, nor even hit the cockpit of an aircraft moving at 150-200 feet per second. In addition, most all major commercial aircraft have two pilots...there are procedures for pilots to mitigate laser effects. Regardless...not sure where I see the "self-defense" aspect.

Rick

[Chooie]

Hmm... I just saw an episode of CSI:Miami where this exact scenario played out. It's also happened before, a couple of years ago in New Jersey. I think the CSI episode was called "Money Plane", but I'm not sure - I don't follow the show and just happened to be bored enough to watch an episode recently, and it was this one.

[packinnova]

No, but then armed thugs don't threaten my life often either...missiles are too expesive anyway. Did we find that vulcan cannon re-posted anywhere?

You could retrofit a water dumper as a crap dumper...still makes for a good "bomb".

[SelfDefense]

doesn't mean he can hit what he is aiming at, nor even hit the cockpit of an aircraft moving at 150-200 feet per second.

Not a problem at all with a fixed laser, a fast steering mirror, a passive sensor system and a tracker.