Laser Warning Wasn't Used With Cessna

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- A new system of lasers designed to warn pilots that they've entered restricted airspace wasn't turned on Monday for the same reason the radio and the transponder of the wandering plane didn't work: the weather.
...
To avoid the expense of scrambling fighter jets to escort errant planes away from the restricted area in and around the capital city, the Pentagon on Saturday had inaugurated a system of red-and-green warning lasers deployed around Washington.

First Lt. Lisa Citino, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said lasers weren't turned on Monday because the pilot couldn't have seen them through the clouds.

"The lasers didn't sparkle for the same reason his radio and transponder went out _ the weather," she said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/24/AR2005052400410.html

[MindPilot]

1. Monday? There was another one?

Sorry, if I appear uninformed, but I've been in South Park -- literally. South Park City / Fairplay, CO and there really isn't much in the way of communication there.

[GregW]

2. Transponders don't work because of weather?

You mean, every time a plane flies above/through clouds they drop off the radar screens of air traffic controllers??????????

:scared:

:bullshit:

[MindPilot]

3. Oh my god, you're right!! I missed that last line!!

How much more are they going to bullshit us?!

For those of you not familiar with aviation terminology, the transponder is a device in the aircraft that transmits the signal which identifies a particular aircraft on the radar screen. Without a transponder the controller sees an a/c as a splotch on the screen. With the transponder the controller sees a well--defined dot with an ID code (flight number or tail number) altitude and airspeed. Short of a direct lightning strike, I can't think of any weather condition severe enough to take out a transponder and the radios. (Most a/c have several.)

They are lying to us AGAIN!

[Cooley Hurd]

4. bigtime bullshit!

Transponders are an integral part of an aircraft's IFR avionics. It's like saying radios don't work in clouds either...:eyes:

[UpInArms]

5. are transponders the devices that are used to locate

planes, even if they are submerged under water?

[Cooley Hurd]

8. That's the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT, for short)...

The transponder is a device that transmits a signal from the aircraft to ATC (called "squawking" a predetermined, 4-digit code - determined by ATC and dialed in by the pilot), and is almost always coupled with an altitude reporting device called "mode c." In short, it's a radio transmitter that shouldn't be affected by weather.:thumbsup:

[UpInArms]

9. thanks!

have to admit that I just don't always know much about airplanes and electronics

:pals:

[Pale_Rider]

6. Read the article ...

But lightning struck the small Canadian aircraft and he lost his radio, Martin said Tuesday. The pilot never got closer than 10 miles from the White House, he said.

According to government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, the pilot's one mistake was that he didn't switch his transponder code to indicate he had no radio.

[GregW]

7. I did ...

It explicitely says his radio and transponder went out. Whether he switched his transponder code to indicate he was without radio or not - his transponder still worked.

Yeah - I know - sloppy reporting.