They cost as little as £15 (about R200) but have the potential to bring down an airliner.
And the chances of handheld laser pointers causing an air disaster are becoming ever more likely, say aviation safety experts.
Incidents of lasers being used to target pilots in British airspace have leapt from only 30 in 2007 to 1,600 in the first nine months of this year.
Across Europe, the number of reported incidents quadrupled from 1,048 in 2008 to 4,266 last year, according to Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation. The gadgets can be easily bought online, with some so powerful they can temporarily blind a pilot from six miles away.
Interference with commercial airlines is already a crime in countries such as the US, Britain, Sweden and Austria, but no such laws exist across much of the EU.
A Eurocontrol spokesman said: “Laser interference is growing and presents a global safety and security threat. Doing nothing is not an option.” The watchdog is calling on the EU to develop “stringent regulation on the production, distribution, purchase, carriage and use of lasers”, while Balpa, the pilots’ union, wants the laser “weapons” to be banned.
Laser interference generally involves directing beams at aircraft on take off or landing, the most critical phases of flight when pilots need to be their most alert. In several recent cases, pilots have been forced to hand the controls to their co-pilots after being temporarily blinded. The danger is posed either by the laser being shone directly into the pilotÕs eyes, or reflecting off the cockpit windshield and filling the cabin with light.
Last year there were two “very serious near accidents”, where pilots of commercial flights - carrying up to 400 passengers - were forced to hand over to their co-pilots and receive guidance from air traffic control after being temporarily blinded.
The most common laser used is green. Handheld models costing around £15 and sold through specialist internet vendors or sites such as eBay, produce a beam roughly 60 times stronger than red handheld laser pointers and can cause temporary damage to the retina.
More powerful lasers capable of causing permanent damage can cost up to £1,000 or more.
In September last year Radu Moldovan, a Romanian strawberry-picker working in Scotland, was jailed for four months after shining a green laser beam into the cockpit of an RAF Tornado jet for ten seconds as it came in to land at Leuchars in Fife. Only the pilot’s skill prevented a crash.
On October 14, hundreds of passengers were put at risk when two flights were targeted 75 minutes apart as they made their final approaches to airports in the West Country.
Dave Reynolds, of Balpa, said that while most of the perpetrators are “just kids”, some have been “disgruntled adults” annoyed by aircraft noise.
The maximum sentence in the UK for intentionally endangering an aircraft is five years’ jail. - Daily Mail