Yesterday, U.S. President Barack Obama signed a bill which includes a provision making it a federal crime to aim a laser pointer at an aircraft, or at the flight path of an aircraft in U.S. airspace. The language in H.R. 658′s Section 311 will become Title 18, Chapter 2, Section 39A of the United States Code. A complete text of the law is below. 

It’s hard to believe that it’s the 21st Century and we’re still talking about pirates, but high-seas bandits are a big problem for ships, including oil tankers and container ships. Last year, there were 430 reported attacks and in 2009, 406, according to reports from the ICC’s International Maritime Bureau.

Pirates are also expanding their range. We’re becoming accustomed to hearing about attacks off the coast of Somalia, but reports of pirate attacks are coming from vessels off the coast of Bangladesh, Nigeria and around Indonesia. The map at right shows piracy and armed robbery events reported to the IMB during 2010.

London-based BAE Systems has come up with a prototype device that they hope will deter pirates from attacking ships altogether. The device shoots a nonlethal laser beam that can be seen at distances greater than 1.2 miles away. The laser provides a visual warning to not come any closer. Attackers who do, will be subjected to the disorienting effects of the light. At all distances, the laser does not cause any harm to eyes.

“The effect is similar to when a fighter pilot attacks from the direction of the sun,” Roy Evans, BAE Systems capability technology lead for laser photonic systems said in a press release from the company. “The glare from the laser is intense enough to make it impossible to aim weapons like AK47s or RPGs, but doesn’t have a permanent effect.”

Tests showed that the laser works well both in daylight and at night.

BAE sees this device as something that could be combined with a ships targeting and radar systems to help aim the device. And they’ve built in security features that would prevent the laser from being used if pirates managed to take over the ship.

As of January 10, 2011, Somali pirates hold 25 vessels and 586 people hostage.

Caption: Instead of a laser, sailors aboard the French Navy ship “La Somme” direct a high-powered light at a small craft after a pirate attack during the night. Credit: Corbis

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Event Date and Time
10/15/2011 10 AM

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Erick Medina of Glendale was taken into custody in his Elk Avenue apartment in connection with discharging a laser at an aircraft, according to Glendale Police Department reports.

It was the second arrest connected to pointing a laser at a police helicopter in less than a week, prompting officials to re-issue warnings about the dangers the lights pose to pilots.

“It’s not a game,” said Glendale Police Sgt. Steve Robertson of the Joint Air Support Unit. “It’s not a joke. It’s an assault.”

The aircrew notified fellow officers that at about 10:45 p.m. they had been struck by a green laser while patrolling the skies over South Glendale. They noticed the light coming from a white apartment building on Elk Avenue.

As officers searched the building, the aircrew was hit again with the laser. But this time, they were able to pinpoint the laser to Medina’s apartment.

Medina told officers that he didn’t point a laser at the helicopter, but instead had been looking at stars through a telescope, according to reports.

A neighbor told police that he had seen Medina previously use a telescope, which was attached with a laser, to look outside his window, according to reports.

One of the intended uses for lasers is stargazing, Robertson said. But if the lasers are “in the wrong hands, it’s dangerous,” he said.

Burbank police arrested Rafael Torosyan, 30, on May 22 after he allegedly pointed a laser at a Glendale police helicopter crew as they were preparing to land at Bob Hope Airport.

Torosyan, a Burbank resident, allegedly flashed the laser at the Glendale air crew four times, police said.

The crew used thermal imaging to follow Torosyan until patrol officers were able to arrest him, police said.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has not filed charges against Torosyan, spokeswoman Shiara Dávila-Morales said.

Incidents involving laser pointing at aircrafts doubled from 1,527 in 2009 to 2,836 in 2010, with the Los Angeles region having the most, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Increased availability to purchase inexpensive lasers on the Internet, production of high-powered lasers, and more pilot reporting likely attributed to the increase, according to the agency.

Gable is accused of pointing the laser inside the cockpit of a Los Angeles police helicopter flying over Hollywood, authorities said. A friend of Gable, whom the manager said was driving the car Gable was in, is facing the same felony charge, police said.

“Boys will be boys, and he was playing with what he thought was a toy and not a felony piece,” Roxane Davis, Gable’s manager, told CNN. “From what he told me from jail, he had it out the window and he was shining it out the window, and the next thing he knew was that he had a spotlight on him.

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