FAA to Fine Individuals for Pointing Lasers at Aircraft

The Federal Aviation Administration will start to fine individuals who point a laser into an aircraft cockpit, it announced Wednesday. The FAA can impose a maximum civil penalty of $11,000 per violation.

Federal Aviation Regulations prohibit individuals from interfering with a flight crew. According to the FAA, lasers can permanently damage eyesight and even cause blindness.

“Shining a laser into the cockpit of an aircraft is not a joke," FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said Wednesday. "These lasers can temporarily blind a pilot and make it impossible to safely land the aircraft, jeopardizing the safety of the passengers and people on the ground."

The FAA has issued an accompanying legal interpretation indicating that "pointing a laser at an aircraft from the ground could seriously impair a pilot’s vision and interfere with the flight crew’s ability to safely handle its responsibilities." (Click on above PDF to read the legal document.)

Previously, the FAA has pursued enforcement action against passengers who, while onboard an aircraft, interfere with the flight crew.

Sgt. Morrie Zager, a helicopter pilot assigned to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Aero Bureau, said the civil penalty will be a "great tool for law enforcement to help protect flight crews and the public from the hazard of lasers pointed at aircraft. People have been arrested and convicted for the federal crime of interfering with a flight crew, because they intentionally pointed lasers at the cockpit and interfered with the operation of the aircraft."

In mid-April, a green laser light was allegedly pointed at a news helicopter in Santa Monica. Earlier that month, a man was arrested in Los Angeles after pointing a similar-colored laser beam at a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter.

Laser-pointing incidents such as these are becoming increasingly common. Since the FAA started tracking them in 2005, reports from pilots have risen from about 300 in 2005 to 1,527 in 2009 and 2,836 in 2010.

Last year, there were 201 reports in Greater Los Angeles and 102 at Los Angeles International—the most for an individual airport in the country. So far in 2011, there have been more than 30 reports of laser-pointing in Los Angeles.

"The increase in reports is likely due to a number of factors, including greater awareness and outreach to pilots to encourage reporting; the availability of inexpensive laser devices on the Internet; stronger power levels that enable lasers to hit aircraft at higher altitudes; and the introduction of green lasers, which are more easily seen than red lasers," the FAA said.

Meanwhile, Congress is considering legislation that would make it a federal crime to deliberately point a laser at an aircraft.