FLYING BLIND: Laser strikes on planes increasing at alarming rate

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - It may seem like a harmless prank but in reality, it's a dangerous situation putting lives at risk.

Laser strikes on aircraft are reaching a record high with an alarming and steady increase over the last decade.

In 2009, there were over 1,500 laser strikes reported to the FAA. That number skyrocketed to 7,703 in 2015.

Commercial airline pilots, like Capt. Chuck Dyer, are concerned that it's only a matter of time before one of these strikes causes a catastrophe.

"I think most people don't realize the risk or the danger they're invoking," Dyer said.

Dyer has seen the blinding light of a powerful green laser shined up from the ground right into the cockpit of his international flight full of passengers

"We were cruising across the western part of Germany, about 21,000 feet, and we got illuminated by a laser," he said.

Dyer said that prolonged strike had him and his first officer on edge for several minutes.

"We are both prior military pilots so the thought has to be in your mind that you're being tracked by some weaponized system," Dyer said.

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Thankfully that wasn't the case, but not knowing was a dangerous distraction the flight crew had to deal with.

That why the FBI is cracking down on this crime, according to spokesman Paul Daymond.

"It's not funny, it's a felony," Daymond said.

Law enforcement agencies are working together and pursue people pointing lasers at aircraft from the moment pilots notify the nearest control tower.

"(We do it) along with our partners at the FAA, local and state law enforcement," Daymond said. "We take it very seriously. It's not just a prank, it can be prison time."

KOLD News 13 spent hours researching laser strike records in southern Arizona. Unfortunately, what's happening in Tucson is following the national trend.

Within a year's time, the number of laser strikes in Tucson nearly doubled from 43 in 2014 to 70 in 2015.

• 2015: 70

• 2014: 43

• 2013: 54

• 2012: 32

• 2011: 48

Two of those strikes involved pilot Greg Perrin, a former Tucson Police officer.

"Something caught my attention, I looked down to see what it was," Perrin said. "I received a direct strike in my eyes with a green laser."

Perrin has more than 1,100 hours flight time.

He flies in and out of TIA several times a week and in the past year and a half, he's been hit with a laser twice.

"It completely blinded me," he said. "I like to describe it as maybe a camera flash but thousands of times worse and it just blinded me."

Perrin is concerned that it's just a matter of time before something terrible happens.

"What you could be dealing with, not just a private pilot with a passenger, you could have a commercial airliner with 300 plus people on board," he said. "So you've got all those lives at stake, you have the people and property on the ground, and we're talking this could be a mass casualty situation. It's not a joke, it's dangerous."