Law introduced to protect pilots from lasers

16/01/2010

By Nick Jones.

It has been made illegal to shine laser beams at landing aircraft after a spate of incidents last year.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), there were 737 occurrences of people trying to distract pilots with lasers in 2009, up from just 29 recorded incidents in 2007.

The CAA campaigned for the new law to be brought in, arguing that it could lead to a dangerous accident.

The Air Navigation Order 2009, which came into force on January 1st, makes it illegal to "direct or shine any light at any aircraft in flight so as to dazzle or distract the pilot".

Captain Bob Jones, CAA head of flight operations, commented: "This new criminal charge will strengthen the hand of law enforcement agencies in their efforts to tackle this problem.

Airports such as Leeds Bradford, Gatwick and Glasgow played host to a number of incidents with lasers in 2009, the latter of which reached 42, the CAA reports.