Pope’s plane struck by laser beam
It seems even the Pope is not safe from the blight of laser beams being aimed at planes in the sky.
Alitalia said in a statement the papal flight was hit by a laser pointer as it touched down in Mexico ahead of the Pope’s five-day visit.
The plane’s crew ‘noticed a laser light from the ground’ while it was about 8,000 feet in the air on approach to the Mexico City Airport.
The Airbus A330 jet landed safely and the captain immediately reported the incident to authorities the statement said.
“The captain immediately informed the control tower of what he had seen, as per normal procedure,” Alitalia said.
Laser pointers can cause temporary ‘flash blindness’ and earlier this week a US-bound Virgin Atlantic flight turned back due to a laser attack – the first time a commercial jet has been diverted for this reason.
According to the FAA there were more than 5,000 laser strikes on commercial and private aircraft from January through mid-October 2015, which compares to just 384 in 2006, the first year the agency began recording data on laser strikes.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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