Laser Christmas Displays Could Be Blinding Pilots
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Some holiday decorations are being called a danger to aviation.
Newer laser Christmas light displays, which are quickly becoming an easy way to decorate homes for the holidays, are causing trouble for pilots around the country.
"People need to be more cautious about the aircraft flying around them," Chopper 5 Pilot Rod Jamieson said.
If a laser Christmas light display from a home hits the chopper's windshield, the cockpit lights up like the North Pole.
"It's going to go through the windscreen, bounce off everything in there. It's completely blinding," Jamieson said, adding "It's very scary, and potentially damaging to eyes."
An American Airlines pilot reported getting beamed with a laser while landing in Dallas last week. The culprit in that case was a Christmas light display 22 miles away.
Pilots call it getting "lazed" but are taking the incidents very seriously.
"There's a lot of things that as technology improves, that people need to think out a little bit more," Jamieson said.