"Laser injures Delta pilot's eye"

In article ,
Larry Dighera wrote:

On 29 Sep 2004 07:58:03 -0700, (Mike) wrote in
: :

Laser injures Delta pilot's eye
A pilot flying a Delta Air Lines jet was injured by a laser that
illuminated the cockpit of the aircraft as it approached Salt Lake
City International Airport last week, U.S. officials said.
at http://www.washtimes.com/national/20...1356-3924r.htm

Military personnel also have suffered eye damage from laser
illumination.
In one case, Naval Lt. Cmdr. Jack Daly and Canadian helicopter
pilot Capt. Pat Barnes suffered eye injuries hours after an aerial
surveillance mission to photograph a Russian merchant ship that
had been shadowing the ballistic-missile submarine USS Ohio in
Washington state's Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The Navy recently turned down an appeal from the Defense
Department inspector general to award Cmdr. Daly a Purple Heart
for the incident. Cmdr. Daly, who retired from the service last
year, continues to suffer eye pain and deteriorating vision.

In the vast majority of these cases, "dazzled", and ergo potentially
"endangered" would be valid terms, "injured" would not.

The primary hazard to pilots from laser radiation at the distances and
with the most commonly used types of lasers in the light-show and even
in the military scenarios is going to be the kinds of instantaneous and
short-term visual impairments that would be associated with the term
"dazzling" -- that is, loss of night vision, temporary loss of all
vision of the sort resulting from looking at any bright light source,
possible severe disorientation if the pilot keeps trying to look at
instruments or outside the aircraft while this dazzling continues --
rather than permanent eye damage or injury. Temporary deterioration
of vision caused by such dazzling effects is obviously a very serious
matter; but it would require quite unusual optical beam power levels to
produce permanent eye damage or injury from a laser beam in aviation
situations.

My understanding is that deliberate dazzling of enemy pilots has in fact
been used in various military situations in recent years, but public
information concerning this is limited.

I do have some familiarity with the Daly case. Both a prolonged,
detailed and extensive investigation by the U.S. Navy and also the jury
verdict in a subsequent civil damages trial concluded that it was very
unlikely Daly was even illuminated by a laser beam during the mission
referred to, much less injured by it. There are also other quite
questionable assertions even in the one paragraph quoted above.