Laser blitz fuels air crash fears
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Sunday January 04 2009
A garda helicopter has been scrambled three times to try to catch maniacs who are aiming high-powered lasers at aircraft coming in to land at Dublin airport.
In the most recent incidents the lasers were fired from Finglas and Howth. While there were no arrests, a file is pending over one of the incidents.
"These incidents are treated very seriously," said a Garda spokesman.
Pilots have warned that sooner or later lasers will cause a plane to crash because the pilot or co-pilot has been blinded by the dazzling light.
The Irish Aviation Authority confirmed that since September there have been about a dozen attempts to dazzle or blind pilots flying in and out of Dublin airport.
The internet trading companies eBay and Amazon have banned the lasers from their sites.
The high-powered pointers are sometimes used by professional astronomers and enthusiasts for pointing out stars, but in recent years there has been an increasing malicious use of the lasers.
"We have reported it to the gardai and they are taking it very seriously," said the Irish Aviation Authority.
"They have launched the Garda helicopter to try and track down the culprits.
"We had an incident where a laser was aimed at an aircraft from Howth and another from Finglas. None of the incidents have occurred from the traditional plane-spotters' site near Dublin airport."
The authority spokeswoman added: "We have heard that they were on sale at a gadget shop, but it appears that the more powerful lasers are being purchased on the web."
David Moore, chairman of Astronomy Ireland, said star- gazers do use lasers but most are not powerful enough to cause problems to aircraft.
"But some of the lasers available on-line have become increasingly powerful. Some lasers are almost military specification," he said.
Astronomy Ireland has one high-powered laser which it uses to point out stars at larger gatherings of enthusiasts.
"We don't let anyone use it and it is very strictly supervised. It is bright enough so that 1,000 people can see it at once. Obviously we would never point at a star which is on the flightpath of an incoming aircraft."
Capt Michael McLaughlin, of the Irish Airline Pilots' Association, said the use of high-powered laser pointers or beams was becoming an "enormous problem" in Ireland.
"This is certainly a very, very serious threat to safety," he said.
"The level of stupidity that you are dealing with is almost unfathomable that somebody would think that this is a reasonable thing to do.
"They are potentially risking the lives of vast numbers of people."
- JEROME REILLY
