CO Pilots Report Being Tracked by Green Lasers Near EWR

[Matt Molnar]

Two Continental Airlines flights reported being tracked by a green laser Friday, shortly after taking off from Newark Airport, according to the FAA. The crews of flight 460 to San Antonio and flight 1192 to Boston, both 737-500 aircraft, noticed the laser about 4 miles south of the airport. The flights departed about 2 minutes apart according to FlightAware.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/0 ... lanes.html (http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/green_laser_tracks_two_planes.html)

[PhilDernerJr]

I've never seen a green laser, but when it comes to lasers in cockpits...they are always green. Anyone have any idea on what its source could possibly be?

[jran225]

I've never seen a green laser, but when it comes to lasers in cockpits...they are always green. Anyone have any idea on what its source could possibly be?

Little green men from Mars with, errr, green lasers? :)
Haha, sorry Phil. On a serious note, one can probably find a green laser pointer at most places that sell the red ones. You probably never see them because red is a more appealing color and most people just go for those. Now back to studying for finals, ugh.

Greets,
-Omar S. :D

[Derf]

It was probably a kid playing with his new laser, look down it like a sight and no harm no
foul....right? (tell that to a pilot!) Just because you can not see the dot a few miles
away does not mean that it is not there! Just like you can see a flash light pointing your
direction a LONG WAYS away, yet it does not seem to light up the side of that mountain!

A green laser is usually more powerful and the light will travel longer with less loss (as I
understand it) A guy at work has one and he went to shine up the underside of an airplane
at cruise... (NEVER MADE IT CLOSE as I smacked him in the back of the head hard!) They
never would have seen it because it was the underside of an aircraft and there are no
windows on the bottom....but being an aviation entusiest.... I found a few stories on the
news outlets the next day and sent him a few of these stories to his email.

IT IS NATURAL to see how far you can get it.... but it is also natural to get really Jarred if
you were in an aircraft and see it. These stories will not stop as I said, it is an urge that
most kids will see how far it will reach, You will not see the dot, but the receiver will jump.

If you see someone with a laser, Tell them a story.....TELL THEM THIS STORY! Make sure
their natural urge to play with a laser is not going into a house window 3 blocks down or
there will be a police stop and a really scarred homeowner. If you see the drunk moron in a
bar with a red laser, tell them about the cop that flipped in the bar and beat the sh!t out of
the drunk guy with his new toy. Lasers are VERY DANGEROUS, and I am not talking eye
damage Mario! lol

[LGA777]

Isn't the sight of the lasers orgin near where Flying Colors lives ?

LGA777

[Matt Molnar]

Isn't the sight of the lasers orgin near where Flying Colors lives ?
It also could have come from Staten Island. Nothing good comes from there. :mrgreen:

[PhilDernerJr]

Mel and I were walking down the street the otehr night and I saw a red flashing. I thought it was an ambulance going through the intersection, so I looked up and noticed it was someone a few floors up in a building shining a laser that got me right in the eye. I saw dots for at least 40 minutes, and the police came a little after to go speak to whoever was doing it.

[USAF Pilot 07]

Lasers are a very serious issue. The reason they are generally green in aviation cases is because "green" lasers are more powerful and can therefore reach further than the red lasers you can buy in the store.

These can be very strong lasers with damaging capacities. There are cases of pilots being permanently blinded because they looked out the window to see where the laser was coming from - a natural tendency - and got hit in the eye, sts. That's the last thing you want to do in any "lazing" incident though. If we do encounter "lazing" we're supposed to look away from the source, mark the position of the encounter, report it to ATC and then fill out a report once on the ground.

The intent behind the people doing the lazing in the US is generally harmless, but overseas it is encountered quite frequently on approaches into deployed locations by not-so-friendly forces.