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from the promoting-laser-beams-on-sharks dept.
A Virgin Atlantic flight from London's Heathrow Airport destined for New York was forced to return following a "laser beam incident":
A flight heading to New York turned back to London Heathrow Airport after a "laser beam incident", Virgin Atlantic has confirmed. A crew member is recorded saying to Irish air traffic control that they had a "medical issue with one of the pilots after a laser incident after take-off". It happened at 20:13 GMT, shortly after take-off, the company said, before flight VS025 returned as a precaution. There were 252 passengers and 15 crew on board. Metropolitan Police tweeted: "Aircraft forced to return to Heathrow after being hit by a laser strike... #laserstrike CAD4."
[...] A new law introduced in 2010 means people could be charged with "shining a light at an aircraft in flight so as to dazzle the pilot".
Janet Alexander, a commercial airline pilot, said shining a laser beam into a cockpit was a very dangerous thing to do. "It's unfortunately becoming an increasingly problematic occurrence. It's very like a lightning strike in that it's very instantaneous, very, very bright light, which is dazzling basically," she said. "And of course if it's targeted in exactly the wrong way you could permanently damage someone's sight."
A total of 414 "laser incidents" in the UK were reported to the Civil Aviation Authority between January and June 2015. The highest number of them was at London Heathrow Airport - 48 were reported during this period. In 2014, there were 1,440 incidents in the UK, with 168 at Heathrow, according to the CAA.
The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) has called for lasers to be classified as "offensive weapons" and banned in the UK, following the Virgin Atlantic flight VS025 laser incident. Members cite the frequency of laser incidents and say the 2010 legislation on lasers isn't tough enough.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday February 18 2016, @04:50PM
You sound like my conspiracy-minded IRL friend. Of course they faked this incident, BALPA fired a high powered laser at the cockpit and/or the pilot faked eye discomfort!
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(Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Thursday February 18 2016, @06:04PM
Doesn't seem that conspiratorial to me at all, this has been going on for a long time. People don't like lasers pointed at them and react spitefully and angrily when it happens. People also don't really take the damage a laser can do all that seriously, especially when they're the one in control of it. If a pilot got one in the eye, it could do a lot of damage and possibly end their career, obviously pilots don't like that and want something done about it. I would too if people were doing something that could impact my career.
The catch 22 being most people only do it because they're told not to. So telling them not to only encourages more people to do it.
"Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe