UK Pilots’ union urges action after pilot injured by laser

Virgin Atlantic flight VS025 from London Heathrow to New York was forced to turn back an hour into its flight as a result of ‘injuries’ sustained by the first officer shortly after take-off on Sunday. The incident happened when the plane was approximately 6-7 miles west of Heathrow when the pilot was struck in the eye by a high-powered laser, continuing on for approximately one hour before it was determined that the injury was more severe than at first believed. Air traffic control were advised of the plane’s need to return to Heathrow owing to a “medical issue” with one of the pilots.
The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA), the UK pilots’ union, immediately warned that “more needs to be done” to confront the rapidly increasing use of lasers which it also felt should be treated as offensive weapons.
Jim McAuslan, BALPA general secretary, said: “This is not an isolated incident. Aircraft are attacked with lasers at an alarming rate and with lasers with ever-increasing strength.
“It is an incredibly dangerous thing to do. Modern lasers have the power to blind, and certainly to act as a huge distraction and to dazzle the pilots during critical phases of flight.
“We repeat our call to the Government to classify lasers as offensive weapons which would give the police more power to arrest people for possessing them if they had no good reason to have them. This incident shows why this is becoming more-and-more urgent.”
Between 2009 and June 2015 more than 8,998 laser incidents were reported to the UK Civil Aviation Authority, while in the USA 7,703 were recorded in 2015 alone, an alarming increase of nearly 100% compared to the 3,894 incidents reported in 2014. In November 2015, a British Airways pilot suffered burnt retinas as the result of a “military-strength” laser being shone into the cockpit of his plane while landing at Heathrow, which is believed to be the most serious injury inflicted upon a pilot in the UK as a consequence of a laser attack.
1n 2010 the laws in the UK were amended, as a result “shining a light at an aircraft in flight so as to dazzle or distract the pilot” became a criminal offense. In 2014 three Leicestershire men were imprisoned after using laser pens to dazzle pilots coming in to land at East Midlands Airport.
Part of the problem concerning the rise in incidents of this nature is the popular trend of “laser tagging” among plane fanatics, where the intention is to strike the fuselage of the plane and not to specifically target the pilots. However, the windshield has the capability of refraction on a laser beam, changing the angle of entry into the cockpit by up to 450 and it is this deviation in angle, even from a misguided beam, that can have such a damaging effect on a pilot’s vision.