Record number of aircraft ‘laser events’ gives us one more reason to hate LA

Are you that kid aiming his father’s laser pointer at people walking along city sidewalks? Yeah, well stop it — now. What you might consider a harmless prank can have serious repercussions when aimed at the cockpit of an approaching jetliner. What seems like good fun at the time can temporarily blind a pilot attempting to land nearly a million pounds of life, metal, and fuel. According to the numbers just released by the FAA, 2010 saw a record number of reports of lasers pointed at aircraft — “almost double” the number of reports from 2009. Of the 2,800 incidents reported nationwide, the Los Angeles area reported the most with 201 incidents, followed by Chicago (98), Pheonix (80, half of which were probably UFO related), and San Jose (80 — nerds!). Top 20 list after the break. Continue reading Record number of aircraft ‘laser events’ gives us one more reason to hate LA Record number of aircraft ‘laser events’ gives us one more reason to hate LA originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 08:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on January 21, 2011. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry