What kind of bellend points a laser at a plane?

[annandale]

Lots of them, apparently

The BBC showed a table from the Civil Aviation Authority - nearly 50 incidents in six months, at Heathrow alone!

Are these all 13 year olds, or adults with a ridiculous amount of time on their hands?

tbh the whole Chinese shite market on ebay needs introducing to a box of matches. Ebay makes bucks from it though so they won't get rid.

hiddenhome

We use one for the cat, but I don't know how powerful it is

What do you do to the cat with it?

What do you do to the cat with it?

Dissect them of course.

Nooooooooooooooo! I assume there are lasers (glorified tourches) and Lasers (cut a barn in half from 50 metres).

Not sure why anyone would want/need the second.

Dissect them of course.

What are you talking about? Seriously no idea what a laser + a cat = ?

This BBC article mentions a couple of earlier incidents where 'men' have been charged with pointing lasers at aircraft, so not 9 year olds.

The number of instances of this is frightening. Makes you wonder what is behind it.

Sadly, that story is an urban myth, Hamiltoes, albeit a good one!

www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/radar.asp

My cat has a laser pointer too! (You bounce the light around the wall and the cat goes nuts).

I'm quite pleased that the ds's laser toys cannot bring down planes :)
Still, until they seem to understand that shining them at car drivers is a bad idea they won't get any more!

I can only presume these dick heads have more money than sense, and are playing "army" or something.

Several incidences of stupid young men people being jailed for shining lasers at planes.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-27055841

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21939795

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/22/cardiff-man-jailed-for-shining-laser-pen-at-planes

So it is being taken seriously, and could easily be seen as potential terrorism, rather than kids pissing about. I think there have also been incidences of animal cruelty - cats eyes are especially sensitive to lasers.

Note that this is all about the high powered green ones, not the relatively harmless low powered red ones. Cats like to try and catch the red spot.

Hiddenhome :o

I have a green laser pointer for stargazing purposes (long range to point out stars and galaxies so others can find them).
It was £9.99 on Amazon, but I can't see that type any more.
We are lucky enough to live not far from a remote area where we tend to go to spot stars etc, we use flight radar app to check the area, and visually scan the skies for planes before considering using it. We would never use it if we can see a plane in the sky at all.

They're easy to use responsibly, but some people are tossers and have no regard for others.

It's great that you are trying your best to be responsible with them. Be aware though that FR24 isn't 100% reliable.

That's why we thoroughly check the skies as well. We only go on a dark, clear night, so we can see planes for miles.
Would never use it if we could even see one plane in the sky, and have taught my DC the same.

That's good.

MNHQ, you know your link on the right - it's not exactly accurate. Nobody cares if you take these things ON planes, it's the twits on the ground that are causing the problem

PippaHotamus - If you mean the 'In the news' link, I think it's using 'on' in the sense of 'against' rather than 'on board'

I was thinking the same thing when I heard about this.
I can only assume it's kids doing it for shits and giggles, but why? What do they think the are going to achieve? Also there have been 50 incidents in 6 months, only one of which has caused a plane to turn back, it's not very effective is it?

I'm guessing it's like that bellends round here who drop concrete blocks off motorway bridges into cars.

Rusty I know what you mean but someone at hq had missed the news story and misunderstood - they have very kindly now corrected it.

A fair few of these incidents have taken place on landing rather than TO so of course the plane is almost on the floor anyway. There are reports of varying degrees of injury and lengths of time off work, because of this, among pilots.

The call to turn back is protocol when one crew member is incapacitated. If you're about to land though, you hand over to the other person and continue.

I like this.

My mentally defective, yobbo neighbour's son used to shine one in the eyes of passing motorcyclists from his bedroom window, a couple of years ago. I, much to my shame, didn't report it to the police. Neither did any of my equally cowardly neighbours.

bellend is that the best word you can come up with. I can think of something a lot stronger.