While a Coast Guard helicopter crew was winching an injured woman off an old sugar pier on Aguadilla Bay in Puerto Rico April 25, aircraft commander Lt. Hunter Blue could not believe someone on the ground was flashing them with a laser beam. It was the third time helicopters had been lit up over the same area, the Coast Guard said.
Fools with cheap pocket laser pointers have been harassing pilots for a long time, despite federal law that can fine them up to $250,000 and lodge them at taxpayer expense for five years. The feds and local law enforcement are trying to find the Aguadilla flasher and lay that case on.
In Washington State, the Coast Guard has been primed for a case after repeated incidents when their Puget Sound boat and air crews were dazzled at night with lasers, which disrupt night vision and can cause temporary loss of vision or more serious damage.
As I wrote earlier this week, the Washington State Ferries have been a target, too. Coast Guard investigators and state police got their first suspect, a passenger who blazed a high-powered blue laser over the pilothouse of another passing ferry. The master suffered a first-degree burn on his eyelid and a damaged retina. The local captain of the port wants to hang a $100,000 civil penalty as the price tag on that stunt, and the laser enthusiast faces state felony charges too.
It’s not hard to imagine an incident that might have even worse consequences – on a crowded urban waterway during a summer weekend night, when some knucklehead in a riverfront park blasts a ferry captain’s eyes.
Nearly 2,200 aircraft laser incidents were reported to the Federal Aviation Administration in the first quarter of 2016, a 55% increase over the same period in 2015. One can only wonder how often this is happening on the waterways now.
