Ladies and Gentlemen, the pilot has been temporarily blinded

[Kitsune]

Does this set off any "BS" alarms with anyone else besides me?

Laser Blinds Pilot

Banach's lawyer, Gina Mendola-Longarzo, said her client was simply using the hand-held device to look at stars with his daughter on the family's deck. She said Banach bought the device on the Internet for $100 for his job testing fiber-optic cable.

The jet, a chartered Cessna Citation, was coming in for a landing last Wednesday with six people aboard when a green light beam struck the windshield three times at about 3,000 feet, according to court documents. The flash temporarily blinded both the pilot and co-pilot, but they were later able to land the plane safely, authorities said.

A laser for $100 that could temporarily blind a pilot travelling at an altitude of 3,000 feet? And since he couldn't be overhead, he'd have to be further away than that. Even shelling out $100 for a laser wouldn't give it blinding powers from that far away.

And its a green laser. For testing fiber optic cable. Doesn't communications-grade fiber always used 650nm (red) laser light?

And around the country, various people have been using green lasers they bought on the internet to temporarily blind pilots. Uh-huh. Very little of this sounds right to be for some reason.