Cockpit laser strikes a growing problem in Alabama - 60 so far this year
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —There is a growing problem with people on the ground pointing lasers into plane cockpits around the country, and blinding the pilots.
Through last month, there were 5,357 reports of pilot laser strikes in the United States. That is twice as many as there were just five years ago.
In Alabama there have been 60 so far in 2015, 12 in Birmingham alone.
Since 2010, there have been 50 reports of cockpit laser strikes at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration says laser strikes can temporarily blind pilots at the very moment they are trying to land the plane, putting hundreds of passengers at risk.
Wayne Novy served in the Air Force during the Cold War in the late 1980s. He remembers a flight when a co-pilot was blinded by a laser strike.
"A voice says, 'I think someone has, someone has done something to my eyes and I think it was from outside the aircraft and it was possibly a laser,'" Novy said.
The laser impacted the pilot's sight, grounding them for the rest of their deployment.
"The angle that a laser would have to come through, this would be happening on landing and most likely would be happening when the plane was low to the ground. And that is probably the worst time," said Wayne Novy, a former air crew member.
Shining a light into a cockpit is a federal crime which carries prison time, if convicted.
"I think the risk in the future to aviation if someone figures out what the possibilities are with one of these, you are looking at a catastrophe.," Novy said.