David Hill was trying to land a helicopter on a foggy night in December when a beam of light overwhelmed his night vision goggles.
Mr. Hill, an emergency services pilot, was called to fly a badly injured teenager from a village 35 miles north of Madison, Wis.
Mr. Hill was blinded temporarily.
He tried to get his bearings while flying 500 feet above the ground. It was like looking into the sun, and all I could see were bright spots.
Someone pointed a laser at a helicopter. Over 67,000 pilots reported similar episodes from 2010 to 2021, according to the FAA. It had a record high number of cases last year and increased by 41 percent in 2020.
The F.A.A. said that a pilot on a commercial airplane could be responsible for hundreds of passengers if a laser pointer reaches the cockpit. Some flight paths have been disrupted, causing pilots to change course.
Billy Nolen, the acting administrator of the F.A.A., said that a toy can temporarily blind a crew member.
Nolen said in a phone interview that there was always a risk of a tragic outcome if a plane was hit by a laser.
The F.A.A. said that lasers were becoming more powerful and easy to purchase, which was one of the reasons for the increase in laser strikes. The agency said that pilots may be getting better at reporting incidents. The bad behavior of the people of the society is being pointed out by other observers.
Dennis Tajer is a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, the union that represents the pilots of American.
It is a federal crime to aim a laser at an aircraft. The F.A.A. can impose civil penalties on offenders.
A Philadelphia man was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $1,000 for shining a laser at a police helicopter. An Alabama man was sentenced to eight months in prison for aiming a laser at a helicopter. A Milwaukee man was sentenced to a year of supervised release for pointing a laser at law enforcement aircraft during protests against police brutality in 2020.
Airplane pilots can't easily spot who is pointing a laser so it's difficult to prosecute. There were more than 100 incidents of lasers pointed at aircraft around Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The F.B.I. is offering a reward to find the culprits.
Law enforcement officials have been inadvertently led to their location by the beams of lasers at aircraft.
Jan Sears, a pilot for the California Highway Patrol, said in February 2020 that he was struck by a laser while on patrol. The source of the light was identified by the camera on his aircraft.
He described the symptoms of the laser, including headaches, blurred vision, and watery eyes. After the strike, Officer Sears said he saw bright afterimages when he closed his eyes.
When you start getting adults who do dumb stuff, you start to wonder what motivates them.
Patrick Murphy, a laser safety expert who runs the website LaserPointerSafety.com, said that people who point lasers at aircraft can be divided into two groups.
Since 2004, there have been more than 100,000 such strikes around the world, and Mr. Murphy is on a committee that helps advise the F.A.A. and pilots about the issue. He said that most of the people charged with pointing lasers are men.
Mr. Murphy said that when it comes to lasers, the bigger and more powerful is better.
The Food and Drug Administration restricts the sale of lasers that are over five kilowatts for use as pointers, but experts say that more powerful lasers are easily purchased and that the devices are often mislabeled.
Some videos on TikTok have links to purchase high-powered lasers. The devices can be used to pop balloons and cigarettes.
Mr. Murphy said that efforts to restrict the sale of the devices in the United States were unlikely to succeed.
He and other experts said that pilots should be educated about lasers and prepared to respond to them. Many pilots are carrying goggles.
Mr. Hill was unlucky.
He was forced to abandon the rescue that evening. He said his eyes were burning and throbbing hours later. He was on medical leave because of his vision and balance problems. Mr. Hill retired in April.
Mr. Hill was told by his doctors that there was no evidence that his issues were related to the laser strike. Mr. Hill believed there was a correlation.
He said that he experienced a laser strike.
Sheelagh gave research.
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