Twenty aircraft hit with lasers overnight. What's the FBI doing?
In the past 24 hours, 20 aircraft were hit by laser beams as they flew over the US, the FAA reported. The pilots of three planes near Dallas reported being hit by laser beams on Wednesday evening.聽
In the past 24 hours, 20 aircraft were hit by laser beams as they flew over the US, the FAA reported. The pilots of three planes near Dallas reported being hit by laser beams on Wednesday evening.聽
A laser beam coming from an area near Dallas hit three inbound planes on Wednesday evening, raising new concerns over the dangerous practice that can聽distract or temporarily blind pilots.
Later on Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration聽said that 20 aircraft had been hit with laser beams in the US during the past 24 hours, according to Reuters.聽
One laser came from an area 11 miles southeast of Dallas, said FAA聽spokesman Lynn Lunsford. He said a law enforcement helicopter was sent to the area to investigate.
The laser hit a Southwest Airlines plane, Virgin America plane, and a private business jet that were all preparing to land at Dallas Love Field. Mr. Lunsford said the planes were at altitudes between 3,000 and 4,000 feet.
Meanwhile, New York police have arrested a suspect who allegedly pointed a laser at an NBC news helicopter while it was flying over Brooklyn on Wednesday. A reporter on board the helicopter used a camera to zoom in on two suspects, who were seen standing behind a building in Prospect Heights.
Police took the two people into custody and arrested one of them.
The illegal use of laser pointers to distract pilots has sharply increased since federal officials first started keeping statistics in 2005. The FAA announced that it received 5,352聽reports of 鈥渓asing鈥� between January 1 and October 16. It estimated that by the end of the year there will have been a total of 6,850 incidents, a 176 percent increase from 2014.
Pointing lasers at aircraft became a federal crime in 2012. Offenders face a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine in addition to civil penalties of up to $11,000 for each violation.聽
Last year, the FBI launched a public information campaign and began offering $10,000 rewards to try to deter people from pointing lasers at airplanes.
Although no crashes have occurred as a result of lasing, Christine Negroni, a freelance aviation reporter, said the federal government needs to do more to address the problem.
鈥淭hey take this name-and-shame approach like 16-year-old juveniles are watching the news and learning from it,鈥� she said in an interview on the Runaway Girl Network podcast in August. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e using yesterday鈥檚 technology to tackle tomorrow鈥檚 threat, or today鈥檚 threat, and it鈥檚 been unsuccessful.鈥�
Ms. Negroni added that offenders 鈥渄on鈥檛 watch the news鈥� and therefore 鈥渘eed to be reached out on their level. And that level is like a Facebook level or a Twitter level, where people are actually going to learn.鈥�
The聽FAA聽said laser strikes were reported overnight by other aircraft in New York, Salt Lake City, Detroit, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Sacramento, Newark, New Jersey; Jamestown, New York; Oakland, California; Covington, Kentucky; Danville, Kentucky; Palm Springs, California; Ontario, California; St. Petersburg, Florida; Springfield, Illinois and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
This report includes material from the Associated Press and Reuters.