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Comment by Causality1 | Hacker News Reader

"Trends in dangerous laser strikes" as if the worst consequence out of the tens of thousands of laser strikes so far wasn't one guy making one visit to a doctor. Exploding cell phones have killed more people than laser strikes. The FAA itself lists over thirty-two thousand laser strikes in the last five years alone, with zero deaths.

Should aiming a laser at an aircraft he illegal? Yes. Do people deserve to be sentenced to over four years in prison for it like Justin Shorey? Hell no.

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There is a lot of places to push for decriminalization and lighter prison sentences in America. We ruin lives and ravage communities over minor, sometimes victimless, crimes. There is a ton of value for us as a nation to focus on this problem and undo the damage done by "tough on crime" stances..... but I don't know if "shining laser pointers in pilot's eyes" is where I would start. It's dumb, reckless and has such a high potential for tragedy.

Of the 1000s of incidents that get reported each year, I'm still waiting to hear about the aircraft that has gone down because someone pointed a consumer grade laser into the cockpit.

Is it an obnoxious thing to do? Certainly, but claims that it's dangerous don't have any legitimacy if there's no evidence to back it up.

> I'm still waiting to hear about the aircraft that has gone down

So sad to hear. No one shines a laser on an aircraft accidentally, and it is not like the police are using lasers as an excuse to systematically punish a minority. We don't need to wait for a tragedy to happen here.

I do get being upset about apparent disconnects in criminal justice proportionality; I really do. And the US legal system is brimming with them, even before you get other problems.

But I rather suspect campaigning to reduce the penalties for lasering aircraft is a doomed effort.

Not US, but I recall at least one story of an ER helicopter pilot in Poland, whose dream of flying was ruined after getting hit by a laser during one flight, and suffering enough eye damage to permanently disqualify him from piloting.

How about just don't fuck with airplanes? Don't fuck around when you're on the airplane. And don't fuck around when you're on the ground below the airplane.

Get it?

Death to anyone with a full-size water bottle!

Fuckin A

"Have you tried not doing the crime?" is never an excuse for over-criminalization.

Just because it hasn't resulted in death doesn't mean it can't, or that it can't cause other problems.

The rhetoric around COVID also trends this way, as some think it's no big deal because some of them are statistically unlikely to die from it. But there are bad things other than death that can stem from it, and it's still a dice roll when it comes to fatality.

I've had a laser hit a plane i was flying. I was basically blind for a minute after that. Had my engine failed in that minute, or had some other emergency occurred that needed my attention and eyes, i'd be dead, and so would some people under my plane.

How would your response be, if someone close to you, would have been killed in a airplane crash, because the pilot was blinded by some idiot?

A slap on the wrist for him, because shit happens? I don't think so.

I mean this scenario has not happened yet, as far as I know, but eventually it will, if idiots keep doing it.

It is an assault, that can lead to injury or death. It is not a prank. It is a crime and deserves to be treated as one.

Hmm

> The injury to the pilot’s eyes caused by the defendant’s actions resulted in the pilot being unable to fly for a week.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdtx/pr/schertz-man-sentenced-f...

A week is the same as forever for all intents and purposes. Blinding a pilot can and will eventually kill people. You have to be a moron not to understand that.

"No one has died yet" is true until it's suddenly not.

If the penalty for doing this was a modest slap on the wrist, that would be a completely ineffective deterrent for an activity that is very easy to get away with and hard to prosecute in the first place.

It seems the only options to prevent misuse here are to restrict the sale of laser pointers, or make the penalty for improper use so well-known and draconian that no one would want to take the chance of being caught.

Problem being the degree of penalty is irrelevant because most of the perpetrators either have no idea it's illegal or don't know it's possible to be caught.

> [...] most of the perpetrators either have no idea it's illegal [...]

How could someone possibly not be aware that trying to blind a pilot would be illegal?

I mean, trying to blind anyone is illegal. But a pilot that's actively flying a plane?

Your awareness of the actual risk of doing something illegal is not a factor. Do any harm at all to a person having a medical condition--known or unknown to you or them--leading to their death and that's a homicide rap.

I felt the same as you but in a previous discussion here on hn people informed me that you can now get 5000mW handheld lasers. That changes things significantly, that could do eye damage immediately.

I still agree with you about the prison time.

Justin...? Is that you?

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