Laser Strike App Designed to Enhance Aviation Safety
John Simpson | December 29, 2016Scientists at the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory have developed an app that analyzes "laser-dazzle events"—instances in which hand-held lasers are directed at airline pilots—to help enable police to arrest offenders.
In 2015, pilots reported 7,703 laser illumination incidents to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration—more than double the number from just three years earlier. Lasers distract pilots from their safety duties and can lead to temporary blindness during critical phases of flight, such as takeoff and landing.
Lasers distract pilots from their safety duties and can lead to temporary blindness. Image credit: Pixabay. The Laser Event Recorder app (LERapp) was developed using an iPhone. It utilizes a phone's built-in camera, GPS and connectivity to record, analyze and communicate details of an incident. The app can be modified for use on Android phones and other platforms.
Profound Technologies, a technology firm based outside of Macon, Georgia, has acquired a license to develop and market the technology. The company says future development of the app will include adding an early-warning feature alerting other aircraft approaching a location recently struck by a laser to avoid the area and/or take necessary precautions, such as having pilots don protective eyewear. The ability to identify the location of the perpetrator and report it to law enforcement will also be added.
The LERapp is expected to be available in summer 2017.
How bright is a 5 mW laser at 5 miles, anyway? I can't believe it's much more than a glimmer amongst the myriad city lights. Also, unless you're really off to the side, which greatly increases the distance, you don't have line of sight to the pilots' eyes. Unless you had a tracking device to lock it onto the plane, it's impossible to hold it on the plane at that distance by hand, anyway, which means they'd just see an occasional flicker when you happened to hit somewhere near the cockpit, perhaps reflecting off the ceiling mounted controls.