Charge those who point lasers at planes, pilots say

By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

Last update: November 26, 2008 - 11:32 AM

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Incidents of handheld laser pointers aimed from the ground at commercial airliner cockpits have occurred involving flights in and out of the Twin Cities in recent weeks, momentarily impairing pilots but not yet causing any perilous consequences, said a security expert for the national pilots union.

"A number of incidents have been reported" near Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Capt. Bob Hesselbein, a pilot and national security chairman for the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) International, said today.

Hesselbein said the ALPA does not have precise figures. A report this week by KSTP-TV, Channel 5, said that federal agencies are investigating nine reported cases of lasers being pointed at aircraft over the Twin Cities area in the past several weeks. Last year, the station said, only two laser incidents were recorded in the area.

"Pilots are becoming more aware of it and reporting it," Hasselbein said, explaining part of the reason for the recent increase, along with the widespread availability of the inexpensive lasers.

Hasselbein said the "biggest concern is flash blindness" suffered by the pilot or copilot of a commercial airliner, which leaves the victim "visually impaired for a matter of minutes."

As for what the government or aviation industry can do about the lasers, "There is no real good technology out there that will protect the cockpit. The people who do this ... are doing it out of curiosity, never being aware of the problems they are causing for pilots flying the airplane."

He said citizens "don't understand how dangerous it is" and his union "wants them to be charged. We want there to be consequence."

These incidents are happening across the United States, Canada and in Europe, he said.

A United Airlines pilot, Hasselbein said, told him of being stunned when a laser struck his eye three weeks ago while flying from Washington, D.C., to London.

"He saw this green glow and couldn't see."

In 2005, ALPA International executive air safety chairman Terry McVenes testified before Congrress that "there have been hundreds of these kinds of events over the past several years."

McVenes noted that federal authorities charged a Parsippany, N.J., man for shining a laser at a private plane and "temporarily blinding two pilots during their approach to Teterboro Airport."

---Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

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