The availability of hand held lasers, commonly termed “laser pointers” is easy and wide spread, through commercial web sites and brick & mortar stores. The output of these hand held devices ranges from 1-5 milliWatts (mW) the legal laser pointer output limit, to 5000mW (5Watts). This is thousand times the maximum limit for pointers. Sadly the abuse of these devices is also wide spread. Over the last few years over 3000 aircraft are exposed to laser hits per year. While these aircraft exposures are of no danger to the aircraft frame but they can cause pilot distractions with the potential to cause a serve accident. The presentation will discuss the problem review visual effects, the regulatory response and how educators need to be aware of the problem and can take steps to educate students in the hope of having an effect.

Date Published: 8 October 2015
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 9793, Education and Training in Optics and Photonics: ETOP 2015, 97931P (8 October 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2223126

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9793:
Education and Training in Optics and Photonics: ETOP 2015