Shining a laser at an aircraft poses a serious safety\nthreat and can result in large fines and criminal penalties. Working to\nidentify trends in laser strikes, the U.S. Transportation Department\u2019s Federal\nAviation Administration (FAA) has developed a visualization tool that analyzes\nlaser strike data from 2010 to 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using the Tableau software platform, the tool identifies\ntrends that include geographic area, per capita data, time of day and year. The\nFAA is sharing the information in the new format to draw attention to the\ndangerously high rate of laser strikes on airplanes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPointing a laser at an aircraft can temporarily blind a\npilot and not only affects the crew but endangers passengers and the\ncommunities they fly over every night,\u201d said FAA Administrator Steve Dickson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Laser strikes increased in 2020 despite the decrease in\nflights due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pilots reported 6,852 laser strikes to\nthe FAA last year, up from 6,136 in 2019. The number of incidents reported in\n2020 incidents was the highest annual total since 2016. Laser report data by\nyear is available for download on the FAA website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People who shine lasers at aircraft face FAA fines of up\nto $11,000 per violation and up to $30,800 for multiple laser incidents. The\nFAA has issued $600,000 in fines since 2016, which includes $120,000 in 2021.\nViolators can also face criminal penalties from federal, state and local law\nenforcement agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FAA says it remains vigilant in raising awareness\nabout the dangers of pointing lasers at aircraft and encourages the public to\nreport laser strikes to the FAA and local law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can watch the FAA video<\/a> about the dangers of lasers or visit the FAA website<\/a> and read their fact sheet for more information on laser strikes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shining a laser at an aircraft poses a serious safety threat and can result in large fines and criminal penalties. Working to identify trends in laser strikes, the U.S. Transportation Department\u2019s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has developed a visualization tool that analyzes laser strike data from 2010 to 2020. Using the Tableau software platform, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Laser-Strikes-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19368,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19366\/revisions\/19368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}