Lasers cause eye damage to more pilots flying out of YVR
Posted September 26, 2014 5:22 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A scary incident for pilots on a flight from Vancouver earlier this week as both suffered eye damage after getting hit with a laser while landing in Ottawa.
Sgt. Cam Kowalski is responsible for YVR as part of the Richmond detachment and says this has become a growing problem.
“It is a global problem actually, numbers in the United States are through the roof and increasing in Canada.”
The reason is simple, he says, “it’s just the availability (has gone up) and the cost has gone down. And the power has gone up.”
The two WestJet pilots will be OK, and suffered only minor itching and irritation.
But Kowalski says it could be much worse. “Some instances, pilots are temporarily blinded or have retinal damage done where they lose their qualifications and can’t fly anymore.”
Ottawa Police are looking into the case.
