No this isn’t a post about Star Wars style lasers shooting planes out of the sky. Phew phew! But rather a child’s toy that can do actual damage and make flying less safe. These attacks are becoming more and more frequent. 

The three major NYC airports are each seeing more laser strikes this year than last. LaGuardia had 54, JFK had 17 and Newark had 18 through Oct. 17, according to the FAA. The site LaserPointerSafety.com noted that 3,894 laser illuminations were reported to the FAA in 2014 up from just 46 in 2004 when they became mandatory to report. 

These small toy lasers that most people would buy to play with their cat can be very dangerous when pointing at aircraft. Not only can they temporarily blind the pilots but some of the more powerful ones can burn the retina of the eye. CBS news reported a story about a ferry boat captain having his eyes burnt by one of these lasers back in October 2015. 
Message to the users:

While these toys can be fun to use with your cat or at night in the woods… Use extreme caution when playing with lasers. If you point them at any moving vehicle, person, plane etc you can and will be prosecuted and possibly jailed. More and more incidents where people are pointing towards aircraft are being caught. The FAA is not taking these cases lightly. 

For pilots: ALPA encourages us to report laser strikes at www.alpa.org/resources