QANTAS PILOT PIRACY REVISITED

This is interesting - there is something going on:

"At DEFCON 2 or higher, the Looking Glass pilot and co-pilot were both required to wear an eye patch, retrieved from their Emergency War Order (EWO) kit. In the event of a surprise blinding flash from a nuclear detonation, the eye patch would prevent blindness in the covered eye, thus enabling them to see in at least one eye and continue flying. Later, the eye patch was replaced by goggles that would instantaneously turn opaque when exposed to a nuclear flash, then rapidly clear for normal vision."

This was also in from a blog commenter:

Eye patches aren't uncommon in military situations. It's used to preserve night vision in the case of explosive lights, search-beams and anything else that might compromise the uncovered eye. Thus you can lift the patch and see, or easily use night-vision equipment without having to wait a significant time. It was actually the same reason that pirates wore them: to be able to go below decks into the dark and fight effectively.

"Jim Sheedy, a doctor of vision science and director of the Vision Performance Institute at Oregon's Pacific University, told the Wall Street Journal that while the eyes adapt quickly when going from darkness to light, studies have shown that it can take up to 25 minutes for them to adapt when going from bright light to darkness, which 'requires the regeneration of photo pigments.'

Pirates frequently had to move above and below decks, from daylight to near darkness, and Sheedy says the smart ones 'wore a patch over one eye to keep it dark-adapted outside.' When the pirate went below decks, he could switch the patch to the outdoor eye and see in the darkness easily (potentially to fight while boarding and plundering another vessel)." [Tested by Mythbusters as 'Plausible' in 2007 (can't be confirmed due to no historical sources)]

At least one military manual for pilots pointed out that "Even though a bright light may shine in one eye, the other will retain its dark adaptation, if it is protected from the light. This is a useful bit of information, because a flyer can preserve dark adaptation in one eye by simply closing it." Even the FAA recommends that "a pilot should close one eye when using a light to preserve some degree of night vision."