The safety of hundreds of passengers flying in and out of Leeds-Bradford Airport has been put at risk by a staggering rise in the number of dangerous laser pen attacks on planes.
A Freedom of Information request by the Telegraph & Argus has revealed that almost 100 attacks on planes landing or taking off at the Yeadon airport have been recorded up to December this year – more than double the 39 noted for the whole of 2009.
And bosses at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are becoming increasingly alarmed at the incidents, with pilots being dazzled and distracted at the most crucial phases of their flights, often as they carry hundreds of passengers.
After an incident in September, the pilot of one passenger aircraft was told to seek medical advice after receiving a “direct strike” to his left eye from a green laser, while several attacks have been on Boeing 737s used by the likes of Jet2.com, Ryanair and BMI Baby.
The latest statistics make Leeds-Bradford one of five hotspots for attacks in the United Kingdom as the worrying craze continues to rise across the country.
Until the end of November this year, there have been 94 reported attacks on planes approaching or landing at Leeds-Bradford, with another two attacks on planes taking off.
New legislation was introduced in January to bring harsher penalties for people caught using laser pens to distract aircraft crews, but despite several arrests and jail terms, the CAA admits things are becoming “serious”.
No-one from the airport would comment on the rise of incidents, but Richard Taylor, a spokesman for the CAA, which is the UK’s specialist aviation regulator, said he would not exclude the possibility a laser pen attack could ultimately lead to tragedy. “It certainly can’t be ruled out,” he said. “We don’t want to over emphasise the risks, but certainly it is a safety risk. It’s something pilots on critical phases of flights, particularly take-off and landing, could well do without.
“It’s an added danger to an already high intensity role. It’s something we do need to tackle.
“Unfortunately over the last two years it has really developed into a serious issue.
“The numbers of incidents are rising exponentially. Already this year we’ve seen possibly double, or triple the numbers we had last year and last year we had a massive increase on the year before that. The figures are getting very high.”
Mr Taylor admitted there was no clear reason why numbers were rising so significantly at Leeds-Bradford, or other airports which had seen an increase in attacks.
He said: “For whatever reason, we’re not quite sure about and that’s why we need as much data as we can to analyse and try to understand. It’s an ongoing thing.”
“We’re working very closely with police forces because they are very concerned about it because their police helicopters are very often targeted as well, which is just as dangerous.”
Across UK airports in 2009 there were 739 laser pen attacks on aircraft, up from 206 in 2008 and just 29 in 2007.
But so far this year, to the end of August, 761 attacks have been recorded.
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