Nearly Daily Laser Strikes at U.S. Airports are ‘A Serious Threat,’ FAA Says
The laser strikes that startled pilots in the skies over Boston last week are a near daily occurrence at airports across New England and nationwide, underscoring the “serious threat” they pose to pilots and passengers, federal data show.
The Federal Aviation Administration received 9,457 reports of laser strikes at airports around the country in 2022, with the number steadily climbing — with some variations — since 2016, according to data posted to the agency’s website.
“Laser strikes on aircraft remain a serious threat to aviation safety. Intentionally aiming lasers at aircrafts poses a safety threat to pilots and violates federal law,” the agency said in a posting to its website.
In New England, New Hampshire led the way with 142 reported incidents in 2022 at airports in Nashua, Manchester and Merrimack, according to a MassLive analysis of the federal data.
Massachusetts followed at a distant second with 19 reported strikes in Boston, Hyannis, Lawrence, New Bedford, Springfield, and Worcester, federal data showed.
Fourteen such incidents were reported in Maine last year, with the strikes split between airports in Portland and Bangor. Airports in Connecticut and Vermont reported nine such incidents in 2022, the federal data showed.
In the first three months of 2022 alone, airports across New England reported 26 laser strikes, the FAA data showed, with the preponderance at Nashua Airport, MassLive’s analysis found.
Last week, the FAA announced that it had opened an investigation after pilots in three incidents in Boston said they’d been lit up by green lasers on approach to Logan Airport and Massachusetts General Hospital, MassLive previously reported.
No one was injured in any of the incidents.
In a statement provided to MassLive, federal aviation regulators said they were “committed to maintaining the safest air transportation system in the world,” and that it would prosecute violators.
Both aviation regulators and pilots alike are taking the threat posed by lasers seriously.
“Let’s get this clear: These are not incidents, they’re attacks,” American Airlines Captain Dennis Tajer told NECN-TV over the weekend when he was asked about the threat such strikes pose to aircraft, pilots, crew and passengers.
In a posting to its website, the FAA warned that while “laser pointers may seem like a toy, office tool, or game,” they “can incapacitate pilots, putting thousands of passengers at risk every year,” whey they’re pointed skyward.
People who shine lasers at aircraft face FAA fines of up to $11,000 per violation and up to $30,800 for multiple laser incidents, according to the FAA. The agency issued $120,000 in fines for laser strikes in 2021.
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