A few months ago I got into an argument on TikTok about this. Some guy posted a video where he pretended to shine a laser pointer at a plane during the day, along with his mugshot and a news story about getting arrested for it. It was clearly a joke/photoshopped because the news story said it happened at midnight.
The argument was about a couple things. 1. Would such a low power laser actually be able to hit an aircraft? And 2. My line of thinking is, it’s dangerous to do it at night because the light scatters when it hits the windows and can impair the pilots vision. Would there actually be any similar danger during the day (besides if it hit the pilots eyes directly)?
I know it’s illegal af regardless, maybe it could mess with sensors or cameras or something. But I’m curious if my assumptions are wrong.
Never, EVER point a laser at anything in the sky, or in the direction of a person’s face. You can blind people, and if theyre flying a plane or helicopter (or driving, for that matter), you can kill them. And whoever they might crash into if they happen to crash. It is a federal felony in the USA, there may be other similar laws in other locations.
Typically low powered lasers aren’t visible like that, but it doesn’t matter. Just like you always treat a firearm like its loaded and never point it towards people, treat every laser like its high powered and never point them at peoples faces or at helicopters or planes.