
After the stunning video of hundreds of green laser pointers dazzling a Mil Mi-8 Hip chopper during the protests in Tahrir Square, Cairo, here’s an impressive photo showing the same treatment reserved to an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.
Source: AFP
The risk in similar situations is that the pilot in the cockpit is blinded by the laser and suffers spatial disorientation that can be quite dangerous, eventually leading to the helicopter crashing on the protesters.
Here below, another impressive screenshot showing the Hip literally painted by the green laser pointers.
H/T to Ronald Elzenga for the heads-up and to Sami (@exo) for the new Mi-8 image.
I don’t know about the Hip, but I’d expect the Apache pilot to have been adequately protected against at least the typical wavelengths of laser light. Also, considering how the cheaper laser pointers tend to put out significantly more than their rated power at infrared wavelengths, the music from the Apaches laser warning system must have been something too!
I wonder if handheld laser pointers operate on a wavelength that triggers his on-board AVR-2 (Laser Engagement Warning System)? If so, the darn thing must have been going berserk!
Wait, this is meant to be a celebration, saying thanks to the people flying the chopper ? I thought they were deliberately trying to blind it’s cameras so the protesters couldn’t be identified…
I always thought that bringing down a helicopter with sniper rifles was more a fictional ability rather than anything close to reality. This proves the opposite