Law enforcement and aviation officials in the Boston area are trying to figure out who is using lasers to target aircraft. Last week there were three incidents of laser strikes from the ground. The first two occurred in the predawn hours Thursday and involved two JetBlue aircraft. Both were reportedly struck by green lasers while on approach to land at Logan International Airport (KBOS).
According to the FAA, the first incident was reported by the crew of JetBlue Flight 494 from Denver. The second was Flight 972 from San Jose, California. The flights landed at KBOS at 5:50 a.m. EDT and 5:54 a.m., respectively. There were no reports of injuries.
The third incident occurred around 8 p.m. when a Coast Guard helicopter conducting a training flight was struck by a green laser while landing at a Boston-area hospital. Again there were no injuries reported from the event.
According to the FAA, pilots have reported more than 7,400 laser hazard incidents so far this year. Last year, pilots reported nearly 9,500 to the agency.
This article originally appeared on FLYING.com. For more great content like this, check out FLYING!
Why don’t people understand the basic concept of “Don’t Do That”? The Government will make a Law that all laser pointers have an angle switch built in that won’t allow them to be pointed up at more than 3 degrees. Just kidding.
Years ago a local who was among those who bought cheap houses with expensive views right under the outlying field FCLP (field carrier landing practice) pattern decided he would solve his noise problem by shining acft in the pattern with a rig of spotlights (laser pointers weren’t yet a “thing”)…one night crews’ wives decided to put an end to it and staked out the field and found him in action. He was lucky the local police showed up in a timely manner.
Never have figured out these idiots definition of success…an acft crashing in their neighborhood?
It’s a mental illness like those who light forest fires or other arsonists.
It’s the same people who throw a penny off the top of the Empire State Building to see if, you know, the myth is true.
They don’t really think it would actually kill someone. They don’t *mean* to kill anyone, they’re just curious. They just want to see what would happen. So it’s OK, right?
And if the myth proved real, well, they don’t expect to get caught anyway.