LASERS EQUAL ATTEMPTED MURDER
It seems like the cool thing to do is point an $8 green laser into an airplane cockpit for fun. This includes private GA airplanes and helicopters, along with Police Helicopters, and finally airliners.
The penalties that have been doled out by the Courts have seemed extremely light. Most sentences seem to be 3 years. One judge recently sentenced a man to 14 years and was overruled on appeal, and the sentence was reduced to 3 years.
There is a general ignorance of what harm these lasers can do when pointed at airplanes and lighting up a cockpit. Temporary blindness to permanent blindness can be the result of a laser strike. If one is flying solo temporary blindness can lead to a crash killing the pilot and anyone in the plane along with those who might be in the way on the ground. An airliner has two pilots aboard, but if both these pilots are hit it could lead to a major catastrophe killing hundreds of innocent people.
In my opinion the laws need to be changed to where anyone shining a laser into a cockpit is charged with attempted murder and heavy sentences applied. This is the only way of slowing down or eliminating laser strikes.
The penalties that have been doled out by the Courts have seemed extremely light. Most sentences seem to be 3 years. One judge recently sentenced a man to 14 years and was overruled on appeal, and the sentence was reduced to 3 years.
There is a general ignorance of what harm these lasers can do when pointed at airplanes and lighting up a cockpit. Temporary blindness to permanent blindness can be the result of a laser strike. If one is flying solo temporary blindness can lead to a crash killing the pilot and anyone in the plane along with those who might be in the way on the ground. An airliner has two pilots aboard, but if both these pilots are hit it could lead to a major catastrophe killing hundreds of innocent people.
In my opinion the laws need to be changed to where anyone shining a laser into a cockpit is charged with attempted murder and heavy sentences applied. This is the only way of slowing down or eliminating laser strikes.
This week there were 5 laser strikes against airplanes in the Phoenix area. 4 were at Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT), the busiest GA airport in the world, and 1 was at Phoenix Sky Harbor (PHX) the next evening. Phoenix is one of the top three cities for laser strikes.
The strike at DVT were over a 3 hour period. What strikes me odd is that the FBI building is right across the street from DVT, and Phoenix Police Helicopter operations are based at DVT. The FBI stated that it is up to Phoenix to pursue this, and Phoenix did not launch any helicopters to try and catch this person(s).
Green lasers are cheap at $9 to purchase. Imagine that you are in a dark room for half an hour and someone shined a flashlight in your eyes. You are going to be blind for a period of time from 3 minutes or longer. It only takes about 20 seconds to loose control of your airplane which could lead to a crash and death.
I did a couple of interviews with the local ABC affiliate which I have included below.
FAA: Another flight to PHX hit by green laser
By: abc15.com staff
Description: Another aircraft en route to Phoenix has been hit by a green laser, according to Federal Aviation officials.
(Sent from ABC15 Arizona)
Link to this article:
Phoenix laser cases set to double this year
By: Joe Bartels
Description: New numbers from the FAA show 183 laser like strikes have been reported in 2015, that's more than double the number reported in 2014.
(Sent from ABC15 Arizona)
Link to this article:
The last and most important is on my You Tube channel at:
Judge613
The current law states that a 20 year sentence and up to $250,000 fine can be issued for shinning a laser into a cockpit. One judge did hand down a ten year jail sentence which was appealed, overruled, and time served was all this person had to serve.
In my opinion the law needs to be changed to attempted murder under Federal Law.
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