Pilots urge ban on laser pointers to avoid disaster

AIRLINE pilots have called for hand-held laser pointers to be banned after a number of pilots were dazzled by them while landing.

Thugs have hit pilots at Dublin Airport with the lasers just 90 seconds before landing, and in a worst-case scenario they could suffer temporary blindness, which could lead to a disaster.

Yesterday, Captain Adrian Hinkson of the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA) said that up to a dozen incidents had been recorded at Dublin Airport since September, prompting Aer Lingus to issue guidance to its pilots on what to do in the event of being targeted by thugs wielding the potentially deadly devices.

"This has been happening quite a bit where idiots are using them to shine into the cockpits of airplanes on approach when they're quite close in," he said.

"Some of these things would almost have a military specification. Our problem is it's currently not an offence to have one," he added.

"If it gets you in the eye you're going to be incapacitated for up to half an hour, and you can also suffer retinal damage. Gardai and the air traffic controllers have been extremely good; but without legislation, people could escape with just a fine."

Captain Hinkson said the lasers should be classified as weapons, making it illegal to possess one except under licence.

The high-powered pointers are used by professional astronomers and enthusiasts for pointing out stars, but people should require a licence to own one, he added.

In the US, a San Jose, California man was arrested in November on suspicion of pointing a laser at an aircraft.

Another man was sentenced to two years probation in 2005 after he pleaded guilty to interfering with pilots of a passenger aircraft by shining a hand-held laser into the cockpit of a plane at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

The Irish Aviation Authority said 10 such incidents have taken place since September and that gardai have used aerial support to try and pinpoint the laser sources. And Aer Lingus said six of its flights had been targeted with laser light beams in recent months.

Gardai said it had received reports about people aiming the lasers at aircraft coming into Dublin, but could not confirm if a file was pending over any of the incidents.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/pilots-urge-ban-on-laser-pointers-to-avoid-disaster-1592102.html