SA pilots forced to turn off lights as laser pranks escalate

South African pilots are having to adopt wartime-like stealth measures, including turning off all aircraft identification lights as they come in to land, to dodge malicious pranksters aiming power laser pointers at planes.

These bright light sources can blind and disorientate a pilot … and may lead to a fatal crash.

The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) said incidents of people pointing and shooting at aircraft has increased.

It’s a prank that could become an inadvertent death sentence to unsuspecting pilots, crew and possibly passengers.

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There have been more than 200 incidents of people potentially blinding pilots in recent years. “Last year alone, we saw an increase of 16%,” said SACAA spokesperson Sisa Majola.

Last July, there was almost an incident a day, with 27 reported safety events involving laser pointers. An airline pilot told The Citizen that most aircraft go stealth when on final approach to airports.

“We turn off our landing lights and try to be as invisible as possible to people on the ground, who find humour in endangering the lives of others,” he said.

FlySafair’s Kirby Gordon confirmed this. “Once an aircraft reports a laser incident to the tower, the tower relays the info to other approaching aircraft.

Going dark

“The flight crew will then switch off all lights in order to make them less visible to the culprits.”

He added that since launch, the airline had encountered this problem from time to time. The pilot added that going dark in itself presents another safety risk.

“Giant tubes of metal bulleting through the sky without the lights on,” he said. “In South Africa, the major locations have been King Shaka, Cape Town and OR Tambo International Airports, in that order.

“The frequency would be around three to five incidents reported per week, with the laser strikes occurring either when an aircraft is preparing to land or take off.”

This was a criminal offence. When a laser beams through the cockpit, it can blind pilots during a critical stage of a flight.

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“It can cause severe damage to an eye retina or can potentially lead to blindness, either temporarily or more permanently, that can render a pilot not able to operate an aircraft any more.

“During take off or landing, a pilot should not experience any distraction, as this is a critical part of any flight when an accident can occur,” said Majola.

The pilot warned: “While a passenger jet has two pilots as a safeguard, in case the laser incapacitates one of them, smaller aircraft that are operated by a single airman are at significant risk.

“It can lead to an accident and, consequently, severe injuries or fatalities.”

Pointing a laser at an aircraft is akin to attempted murder, the pilot said. SACAA recently caught two perpetrators.

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One was a 12 year old whose parent was fined after the minor pointed a laser at a South African Police Service (Saps) helicopter and blinded the pilot. Law enforcement tracked the beam to pinpoint its origin.

In Durban, Majola said, a man was arrested on the beachfront for the crime.

However, as a regulator, SACAA cannot do much more than write a ticket. It needed Saps to take matters forward. Because of the inherent danger that abuse of laser pointers holds to aviation, Majola said SACAA had embarked on a public awareness campaign to educate the public on the perils.

“We have also conducted presentations to Saps, municipalities and metro police and other law enforcement agencies with a view of equipping them to assist in apprehending the culprits.”

Incidents involving laser pointers blinding pilots have been ballooning over the past five years around the world, with authorities from Canada to New Zealand, voicing their concerns.

Last year in the US, a man was jailed for two years after he blinded a pilot flying a Delta Air Lines plane over Wisconsin.

The US Air Force Office for Special Investigation has made laser incidents a priority because of the increasing number of military aircraft being targeted.