The number of laser attacks targeting aircraft hit a new high last month, according to new data obtained by Gizmodo. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wants Americans to know that shining lasers into the cockpits of passing planes is not only dangerous for people on the ground, but illegal and can land people in jail and impose severe prison sentences.
In February alone, the FAA received 1,297 reports of laser attacks in the United States, an average of 44.7 per day. This is significantly higher than January’s average of 36.4 per day. In 2023, U.S. pilots suffered 13,304 laser attacks, the worst year on record.
There were 9,457 laser attacks reported in 2022, 9,723 in 2021, and 6,852 in 2020.For historical perspective, the FAA recorded only 1,489 laser strikes in 2009, but that number nearly doubled in 2010 to 2,836.
Laser attacks are dangerous because they distract and sometimes temporarily blind pilots. When a laser shines into an aircraft, the entire cockpit is flooded with light as it reflects off the glass of the flight deck windows, endangering the lives of pilots, crew and passengers.
But it’s not just commercial airliners that have been hit by lasers.Matthew Mellon, the pilot of a small plane in Virginia, told local station WCYB the story of how he was blinded with a laser pointer by someone on the ground earlier this month.
“When you fly at night, your vision adapts to how dark it is when you fly. So I literally lost the ability to see the left side of the plane for a few seconds,” Mellon said.
Mellon was flying with his wife and kids, and they were all put in grave danger for no apparent reason by some idiot on the ground.
It is a federal crime to shine a laser on an aircraft, and anyone involved in a laser attack could face fines of up to $250,000 and up to five years in prison. In the most recent example, a 41-year-old man in Washington was sentenced to eight months in prison for shining a laser on a small two-person airliner.
“The pilot’s eye was damaged by the laser beam and he was unable to see the instrument panel,” a press release from the Department of Justice explained. “He was able to switch to the backlight on the instrument screen, which allowed him to land the aircraft safely. The pilot suffered an eye injury that required treatment.”
Just this month, a 53-year-old man in Tucson, Arizona has been arrested A 29-year-old man was arrested near Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York for shining a laser pointer on an airplane. Exactly the same thing On a Delta Air Lines flight trying to land.
“The FAA is committed to maintaining the safest air transportation system in the world. Targeting lasers at aircraft is a serious safety hazard that puts everyone on board and on the ground at risk,” said FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker said in an emailed statement.
Anyone who witnesses a laser attack is encouraged to report the incident to the FAA through its website.