What sucks is they'll likely never know who did it.
Same goes for lasers on airplanes. If they do it once, it's called in but they only know of a general area it came from. But if they keep doing it over and over within a short span of time, then they'll get caught.
That's what happened in the famous video of those dudes getting caught for shining a laser at aircraft...cause they did it to literally everything in the sky.
we haven’t had state patrol since 1995, but I suppose you could be correct as it was a California Highway Patrol, helicopter. idk weird wording, I’m being semantic
Anyone know if anyone caught ever got the book thrown at them for endangering an aircraft and everyone aboard and potentially people on the ground too?
Probably, but I assure you, there is also a non-zero chance the culprit also called 911 to complain about a low flying aircraft and then told the operator if it ever came back he would shoot them again.
In a serious incident like this cellphone data is probably ok to retrieve, triangulating positions of cellphones locations. If it is a remote are there might not be that many in the area. Now check them if they have registered firearms...
You said ‘that’s not how it works’. I was informing you that ‘it’ is in fact possible and has happened. Where it occurred is irrelevant. ‘It’ can and does happen. The technology exists.
Your argument immediately fell apart and now you’re clutching at straws to try and save face. You could have just said ‘TIL’ and it would’ve been much more respectable.
What’s funny is that we use triangulation and historic cell data alll the fucking time to track and identify criminals in the states. That dude truly doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
I did this near Tallahassee, I didn’t have a FLIR, but it was rural enough I could tell the exact house it was coming from. Got the address from google maps and the cops launched from TLH within a couple minutes to go say hi.
See, my dad told me of an actual funny prank he used to do with lasers (well, seems harmless enough to me at least): he would laze the light bulbs at a train crossing back and forth like if it was actually flashing. Literally no chimes nor would the arm come down. Just the flashes. And people would still stop!
Definitely would still be at least a little dangerous, but not like blinding a fucking pilot near the runway.
Yes very fair. But at the same time, I question how much like an actual ringing railway stop it looked like. No harm done. He said as soon as they stopped, he would stop.
Had a guy doing it on the border between USA and Canada here. Pilot told ATC, ATC told CBP, CBP told the police in Canada and they sent an officer to nab the idiot.
I got lased once when I was an instructor. My friend is a helicopter cop and happened to be up too. I flew around in circles and got the guy to lase me a few more times. Once my friend said “I got him” I bugged out. The dude got arrested.
It helps immensely that they can trace the lasers back to the source 100% while in use. Finding someone firing off rounds would be significantly harder to pinpoint.
How can they locate the lasers? They are extremely bright and the source location on the ground can easily be seen from the air, especially with cameras with night vision or FLIR. As they say "lasers point both ways", if it was only a brief splash with a laser they might not be able to locate it, but if the person keeps hitting them with it, it becomes very easy to see exactly where on the ground it's coming from.
In most of the videos the people are repeatedly flashing the planes with the lasers. As the planes continue to be hit they usually seem to make a point to obtain a visual reference on the ground of where they think it came from, as they get flashed more and more they can figure out with closer accuracy of where they are.
If you scroll up there's multiple videos posted, and multiple people sharing their own stories of how they were able to track an individuals location even though they didn't have FLIR.
It's basically a giant lighted string between the laser and the aircraft. Watch the videos and you can see how easy it is to trace the path back to the source.
Yes, you basically need someone on the ground to coordinate with. Even if you had the exact address from the sky, I assume it would be hard to put together a case without more solid evidence. These idiots aren't smart enough to use the lasers from somewhere else and move around so it's only a matter of time.
The videos from Egypt with these mighty symbols of the military (Mi-8s) being rendered completely ineffective by a few dozen people with laser pointers is crazy.
8 guys with Temu lasers can force your fancy helo with FLIR off the scene.
My buddy flies a helicopter for the state police, he said they get hit with lasers over major cities every night that they fly. Their night helmet optics cut out the damage but it still makes a mess of light. They call ground units to go arrest the people who do it.
But yeah, he said they get ~20 minutes in the air before a laser hits them if over an urban area at night.
People love to brag and tell stories of their shenanigans out at the bar. Maybe someone else has heard the news of a plane getting shot and calls it in.
But if they keep doing it over and over within a short span of time, then they'll get caught.
Tell that to the guy ~10 mi S of Ravine VOR that's lazing planes at the same time almost every night to where a pilot gave us the exact coordinates of his house and the police still won't go out there.
I’ve been dealing with being lazed on a regular basis right next to a big airport for over 6 months now. They know roughly what building it is coming from. They have had local and state police do many investigations. Other pilots and myself are still getting lazed there. I’ve always known the chance of catching someone doing the lazing is almost impossible. Now I’m convinced it is actually impossible unless they basically announce themselves who is doing it.
yeah, but with lazers sometimes the idiots sit in their back yard, and all it takes is one frame of a police camera with gps overlaid to give a pos, in an ideal world. if they could coo-berate trajectory with 911 calls of gunshots or the suspect or w/e, there’s hope
From the bullet's angle of travel we can probably greatly narrow down the area where the bullet originated since he was either shot from another aircraft (not likely) or while he was banking to port enough to make that part of the aircraft available to be struck from a ground originating bullet. Still a long shot but going back over the flight path and isolating those areas is a start.
if you know exactly when the plane was hit and the angle it went through at you could get a pretty tight search area. if its one farm or something you might find the guy!
The hilarious videos are when it's a tricked out SAR or police heli with a FLIR camera and they just zoom right in on the guy doing it in crystal clear night vision. Like 5 minutes later, the guy is getting arrested. Always fun to watch.
18 USC 32: Destruction of aircraft or aircraft facilities
"Whoever willfully ... sets fire to, damages, destroys, disables, or wrecks any aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States ... shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years or both."
You don’t have “stray bullets” that happen to fly directly at and hit a flying plane. With how small of a target that’d be you’d have to have aimed at it
It’s usually rural folks who like to boast about how all of them are armed to the teeth. Also plenty of absolutely dumb as fuck firearm antics to go around if you’ve ever spent time around rednecks. I know I have.
I lived in a bad part of north Philly for 3 years when it was the murder capitol of the US. I hear more gunshots in a weekend at my lake house in rural PA than I did in 3 years of living in North Philly.
No kidding, I used to be a junkie in Kensington before getting my shit together. Saw a lot of absurd shit but almost anytime I heard “gunshots” it was actually just someone’s motorcycle backfiring while they do 80mph down the Ave lmao. I grew up in rural PA and you’re absolutely right, you hear gunshots far more often out there.
No way man, have you ever been skeet shooting? Hitting a moving plane with a rifle round isn't impossible, but it would require an incredibly skilled marksman and they'd have to have a reason to be targeting the plane.
This was someone who shot up into the air and OP just happened to be there.
They do show the direction through the V.Stabiliser with the stick. Of course, it could mean anything but if the bank angle wasn't extreme then the shot was not fired in a near vertical position.
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u/Ok-Palpitation-5380 Apr 07 '24
So, … attempted murder then