JetBlue pilot struck by laser

ABC News reports that a JetBlue pilot was injured when a green laser, pointed directly into the cockpit, caught him in the eye en route to John F. Kennedy Airport from Syracuse.


The FAA reported that the incident happened on Sunday and that the pilot immediately notified the control tower. The flight landed safely at JFK several minutes later.


Pilots can be blinded by laser rays. In 2011 more than 3,500 laser/aircraft incidents were reported. 


It is illegal to shine a laser at an aircraft.  In 2009, Dana Christian Welch, a Southern Californian man, was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison for shining lasers at two Boeing jets about to land at John Wayne Airport in 2008.  It was the first US conviction of its kind for laser interference with jets.  The FBI is escalating efforts to find and prosecute offenders.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

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