Arab News

Jeddah, Apr 6: A green laser beam directed from the ground briefly blinded pilots of two passenger planes coming into land at Riyadh’s King Khaled Airport last week — an incident that has highlighted the problem of people using lasers for sinister purposes.

One of the planes, arriving from Jeddah, delayed landing. According to Al-Riyadh newspaper, the pilot of this flight handed control of the plane to the co-pilot, who safely landed the aircraft. It later transpired that the lasers were flashed from the Thumama area, 50 km north of Riyadh, and a youth was subsequently arrested.

The practice of using laser pointers in the Kingdom to distract people first surfaced during a football match in 2006 when ART TV spotted a fan directing one at Al-Ahli’s goalkeeper during a game against Al-Hilal.

The practice seems to have taken a dangerous turn now with planes being targeted.

Directed at cockpits, presumably with the intent of disorienting or blinding pilots, the intense light distracts pilots on final approach and could cause a disaster.

Evidently, green lasers and other powerful laser equipment are now available in the Kingdom and, going by current evidence, are already in the wrong hands. A reliable source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that green lasers are available in car accessories souqs.

“I was recently offered the ‘latest gadget’ for around SR500 — an all-new powerful pen-sized laser pointer that maintained full strength for four miles,” he said.

In the US, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have previously warned police that terrorist groups were likely to use laser beams to bring down flights.

A notice issued by the agencies said, “In certain circumstances, if laser weapons adversely affect the eyesight of both pilot and co-pilot during a non-instrument approach, there is a risk of an airliner crash.”

However, law enforcement officials in the United States stress that it would take a great deal of skill to aim a laser directly into a pilot’s eyes from a long distance. The idea of using lasers to down aircraft, however, is not a new one — the Russians tested it during the Cold War.

Since 1990, there have been over 400 incidents of lasers pointed at aircraft — a phenomenon that appears to be on the rise as the equipment becomes increasingly easy to buy.

Recently, six planes flying into Sydney Airport were hit in a coordinated attack by blinding green lights in what, safety officials said, was the city’s worst laser attack.

Air traffic controllers closed the approach flight path and diverted incoming aircraft to a different runway at the airport.

Air Services Australia said it was the country’s first recorded “cluster attack” in which three or four people used lasers to make a coordinated attack on aircraft coming into the airport.