I once had a 22 years old roommate who bought a 5 mW green laser, and liked to shine it in his friends' eyes often because he thought it was funny, despite the fact that even a 5 mW laser can permanently affect eye-sight if brought to bear at close range. One day he tried to shine it at me, and said that he would go out to "mess around" with people outside. I told him that if he ever pointed that thing at me or anyone else again, I would find a way to get him in legal trouble. It really angers me that idiots like this guy are out there and have a complete lack of respect for the health of others.

I got lased for the first time a week ago at DFW. It was simply a couple of green flashes... the dude obviously had a shaky hand. After the second flash, I had the spot narrowed down to a neighborhood, and I thought "One more flash, and I'll have a house." But it never came, so I did not bother to report it.

Altitude was about 6,000'. The laser must have been weak, or the flashes very, very brief, because it did nothing to distract or bother us. Just a winking green light from the ground.

1. Don't look at it. It's hard to tell how powerful it is by looking until it's too late. It could damage your retina and you might not notice right away...or even until your next eye exam. Remember a few thousand feet or even a few miles does very little to "dilute" the strength of the beam...you might as well hold the device right in front of your face and stare straight into the beam. But a very powerful laser that could result in instant visual incapacitation would typically be very dazzling.

However...It would be possible to incapacitate pilots with a laser using light outside of the visible range, ie a CO2 laser which is typically a very powerful (and unfortunately very common) industrial tool. Since the beam is invisible (infrared) it would likely need a small laser-pointer-type visible laser boresighted to allow for aiming. So that little laser beam you see could in theory be the targeting system for something that would literally fry your retinas over-easy.

2. You should report it every time. Believe me, they really want to know about these. It may be a repeat offender and they may be ready to go get him with police air assets.

Posted before I believe - but as a rehash, here is the kink to the FAA website where you can report an incident.

Laser Safety Initiative

Educational too.

Airlines all have an internal reporting system, which provides data to the FAA (and other agencies).

If you report a laser in a terminal area, ATC will usually have law enforcement of some flavor come get a statement after you land.

Is there such a thing as a mini-HARM with a rubber warhead?

This happens in Maui quite often actually. Hasn't happened to me but several times I have been entrail of an aircraft that is has happened to.

That's funny!

Grammar Police!

In Trail = following another airplane

Entrails = pile of animal guts on a slaughterhouse floor

Nice to see the Feds are stepping up on this issue. Now if ICAO and other country's regulatory agencies would do the same it would be nice.
Reported getting beamed in Europe and Middle East and it was like they didn't want to hear about it.