RAF fighter aircraft – TORNADO GR4s at RIAT 2011
Pilots
Pointing lasers at aircraft will cost offenders big time
Cours d’anglais aéronautique sur FCL ANGLAIS
Pointing lasers at aircraft can cost pilots their lives. The FAA has decided to increase the penalty. This prank is to cost the offenders a hefty fine – up to $11,000. Some pen-shaped laser pointers have been reported around a thousand times in the USA in 2011, and 2,836 incidents were reported last year.
It may seem a harmless prank. However, when a laser pen user aims at an aircraft, it turns into a dangerous hazard as the laser light is reflected everywhere. When the beams re reflected into the pilots’ eyes, the can get blind, and cause a crash.
Pilots landing in Russia – 30 of them blinded by laser pens!
Australian Zeppelin crash
It happened over a field of Reichelsheim, near Frankfurt, Germany yesterday evening, June 13, 2011.
The Australian pilot died in the crash of the Goodyear blimp. The Zeppelin’s captain managed to save the lives of the 3 passengers when he heard a loud noise from an engine, and as it smelled gasoline, he urged the passengers to jump out at only 6 foot above the ground. The aircraft then dashed 50 meters higher. It blew out, before diving in flames. Video:
Solid-as-a-rock A380 aircraft struck… by lightning!
It is not uncommon for aircraft to be struck by lightning but this super heavy Emirates Airbus A380 got hit by a jagged bolt of lightning right over the pilot’s seats.
A huge amount of electric energy must have passed through the airframe of the aircraft during its approach at London Heathrow last week. Amazingly the commercial aircraft escaped damage, and nobody was hurt.
Is it any wonder this airplane may sustain such a stress in a clap of thunder? The size and the nature of the A380 airframe seems to be the right solution to such hazards. Thanks to its thick metal structure, the plane behaved as a perfect Faraday cage: