The journey of 1300nm begins...

ArrowFlyer86

ArrowFlyer86

Pattern Altitude
PoA Supporter
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Jul 17, 2019
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Chicago suburbs
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The Little Arrow That Could
With getting lasered by some ****ing jack ass who was aiming at planes on final RWY18 at my refueling airport: Springdale Arkansas (KASG). At about 200 AGL I see a hovering green dot to my left that catches me off guard, turn, and I'm almost completely blinded. Guy had a true aim and held it there for a solid 3-4 seconds on and off before he left off. I hit full throttle and was going to go around and turn my tail away from where it was coming from, but I was able instead to rescue the landing.

I let ATC know as it was happening and plan to call tomorrow to see what comes of it.

Honest question: is there any protocol for what you're supposed to do if some **** stain lasers you?

On the plus side I made it down to Abilene TX. Pretty much one long night of flying. And my trip over Missouri was at sunset and got some nice photos. They might not size right uploading from my phone.
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I was going to grab a seat on this nice park bench at the airport until I saw the sign. I ain't in Illinois anymore I guess!
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Sorry to hear that. On Oct 27 in the evening I was landing at KGGG and being vectored behind a small jet. On final to Rwy 13 they received a laser hit. Tower advised me about it but we never saw anything thankfully.

After they landed, the pilot asked Tower what the follow up would be. Tower said they report it to law enforcement and it’s taken seriously. Pilot told ATC it was the worst one they ever experienced.

Any lessons or advice on what you should do or warnings of what not to do?

Are they still a tiny dot or pretty wide by the time it gets to the plane that it hits your eye?

Beautiful pics. Safe travels.
 
If you're able to guess a rough location of where it was done, there has been at least one case of some amateur detective work asking for security camera footage (from storage areas and the like) which has led to a conviction.
 
AvNavCom said:
If you're able to guess a rough location of where it was done, there has been at least one case of some amateur detective work asking for security camera footage (from storage areas and the like) which has led to a conviction.
Click to expand...
As much as I'd want to catch the #%&!, the last thing I'm going to do if I'm getting lasered is look toward the source while it's happening.
 
Jim_R said:
As much as I'd want to catch the #%&!, the last thing I'm going to do if I'm getting lasered is look toward the source while it's happening.
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Agreed, but that wasn't what I was suggesting. Most laser incidents in my experience (and I've dealt with quite a few of them) occur from ground areas relatively near the airport. If you have a sense of roughly where you were at the time of the laser incident relative to the airport, and you also have a sense of roughly where the laser came from (directly left, forward left, etc.) then there's a possibility you could guess likely spots and see if there's footage. Very small chance, I agree, but it has happened. Aviation News Talk had an interesting episode in which a guy tracked down the culprit by finding him on storage unit footage, which also got his license plate and a nice shot of the dude himself doing it.

Other options are to make local inquiries. Odds are it's not the first time they've lit someone up, and if people are generally getting hit in the same area, it narrows down the area for law enforcement or a bit of amateur detective work. I'm not suggesting everyone become a sleuth, but if asking around could help find the perpetrator, it might be worth the effort.
 
What kind of miscreant gets their jollies off on doing this ****? What's the goal?
 
I’ve had the pleasure of helping to catch four laser operators in the Tucson area over the past few years. The Tucson Police dept helicopter flies nightly. Every time an aircraft reports a laser event to me in the tower, or through tracon who tells me, I send Air1 to the coordinate given. Hasn’t worked every time but has at least four times for me.

I don’t know what happens after they catch the person though
 
I don't think they have any idea that they could cause a crash and loss of life.

I wonder how they would feel if they brought down and airliner and killed hundreds of people
 
Thanks all. I made the mistake of looking directly at it because the idea that I was staring directly into a laser didn't cross my mind. The best report I could give to ATC was that it was about 1-1.5 miles off my left wing to the east. I could see the big window it was coming from, even though I only saw it momentarily.

@Zeldman that seems like a good and obvious idea to turn off my lights. From that distance at night time he'd have a hell of a hard time finding me I'd guess?

Hoping I don't have that **** for the rest of the trip. And @Timbeck2 thank you - you're doing the Lord's work by helping in catching those people. Idk what kind of soul it takes to enjoy doing that to a random person.
 
But to clarify once I realized what was going on I didn't continue looking at it. Also, I underestimated the amount of scatter that would occur in the cabin when it hits the window.
 

I think I posted this somewhere here when it happened, but I got nailed by a green laser earlier this year or late last year. He kept lighting me up for a couple minutes and since it happened over my hometown, I knew exactly what intersection he was at. I climbed and gave the report to Approach, landed, called the cops and gave my report. Later that night I submitted my incident report to the FAA at the link above.
Haven't heard anything since so I wonder if I should have landed immediately so I could get the cops in the vicinity sooner, assuming they even cared and dispatched someone.
 
AvNavCom said:
one case of some amateur detective work asking for security camera footage (from storage areas and the like) which has led to a conviction.
Click to expand...
www.justice.gov

Snohomish County man who aimed laser at two small planes sentenced to prison

Seattle – A 41-year-old Snohomish County resident was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to eight months in prison for two counts of aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman.
www.justice.gov www.justice.gov
 
Made it to... The airplane boneyard!

Didn't realize they got crushed by flooding a couple weeks ago. All the rental cars were taken, which was not reflected online when I booked....

Tomorrow I'll finish the voyage to Arizona, but I enjoy stopping here.

More airplanes than I remember in 2022 being torn down. Dozens of them parked out here and not a single engine on them. Windows taped over, or some other aluminum color barrier they put over them.
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Random cliffs in the middle of nowhere in west Texas.
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Not a cloud as far as the eye could see! Nowhere near as many bumps as I got when it was 95 F out.
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Pinecone said:
I don't think they have any idea that they could cause a crash and loss of life.

I wonder how they would feel if they brought down and airliner and killed hundreds of people
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I'm guessing they would be scared of being caught, but little else.

Let'sgoflying! said:
www.justice.gov

Snohomish County man who aimed laser at two small planes sentenced to prison

Seattle – A 41-year-old Snohomish County resident was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to eight months in prison for two counts of aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman.
www.justice.gov www.justice.gov
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This is just 15 NM north of my home drome, fly past there often, and I never heard about it. He should have gotten the year and a day the prosecution was requesting--even more.

If you are doing less than a year on a federal rap, do you serve it in a federal prison or county jail? Is this why the prosecutor was requesting a year and a day?
I believe in WA State sentences of less than a year are served in county and a year or more in State Prison.
 
Domenick said:
If you are doing less than a year on a federal rap, do you serve it in a federal prison or county jail? Is this why the prosecutor was requesting a year and a day?
I believe in WA State sentences of less than a year are served in county and a year or more in State Prison.
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Max Trescott did a pretty good interview with the pilot on Aviation News Talk. Goes into the prosecution a bit and why sentencing was requested the way it was. Short version is apparently this dude had some fairly serious addiction issues and the pilot involved had some sympathy for that, preferring treatment as part of the sentence as opposed to longer imprisonment.

I was interesting to hear how the guy landed the plane near-blind basically by hunkering down in the cockpit with his instruments on max-bright and used the synthetic vision on his PFD (G3x or something similar) to line up on the runway and land. Crazy!

296 Blinded by a Laser Beam: How a Pilot Fought for Justice + GA News – Aviation News Talk

aviationnewstalk.com aviationnewstalk.com
 
Didn't take my normal route around Tucson, instead cut over to FFZ from Roswell (south to El paso, deming then direct FFZ). Cruises 8500 the whole way to stay on flight following as much as possible!
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Snow on some of these mountains. Glare makes it a little tough to see.
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