The Coast Guard expressed frustration Thursday about a third laser strike on its Oahu-based aircraft in the last five months, saying people need to be aware of the risk to its aircrews.
"This is the third in a series of events that have taken place since I took command on the 1st of June, and I’m interested in making sure we get that word out there, continue to get that word out there, on why it’s such a significant issue," Capt. Timothy Gilbride, commander of Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point, said at a news conference.
Gilbride said a green laser strike on a C-130 Hercules airplane flying into Kalaeloa late Tuesday night from the "Electric Beach" area near Kahe Point "was the final straw."
Gilbride said he will continue to work with the Justice Department, police and the Federal Aviation Administration "to begin the process of really pursuing what we do next on this kind of accountability issue."
The number of aircraft laser strikes in the U.S. has gone up sharply in recent years, with the FAA reporting 3,592 laser incidents in 2011, 2,836 in 2010 and 1,527 in 2009.
The FBI previously said laser strikes were expected to reach 3,700 last year. Last month saw a record pace of nearly 350 laser sightings nationwide, ABC News reported.
Gilbride said laser strikes can compromise the eyesight of pilots and crew members. The Barbers Point air station is home to four C-130 airplanes and four MH-65 helicopters.
"It also potentially puts the helicopter or aircraft in jeopardy because if you have the pilots and the crew degraded, that decreases the ability of the aircraft to fly through the air, so it potentially puts them at risk of maybe hitting the water or crashing," Gilbride said.
The Coast Guard conducts 250 search-and-rescue missions a year in Hawaii. But it is a "resource-limited organization," Gilbride said, and when a aircraft gets lased, it has to return to base, and affected crew members are grounded for 24 hours.
"I’m in a position where I have to delay that response for our primary mission, which is taking care of the American public," Gilbride said.
Elliot Enoki, first assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Hawaii, said there is now a federal statute that makes aiming a laser at an aircraft or in the path of an aircraft a felony.
Conviction can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, he said.
Interfering with or disabling the operator of an aircraft, using any device, can bring up to 20 years in prison, Enoki said.
Enoki said he does not recall any prosecutions here, "but there have been prosecutions on the mainland for people doing exactly this," he said.
An ABC News helicopter was beamed by a laser recently in San Francisco, and the copter’s camera captured the incident on tape, ABC reported.
"The guy was standing on his front porch, his face was really obvious and he kept doing it over and over again," ABC News reported.
The man, who had a laser pointer in his pocket when arrested, faces an $11,000 federal fine if convicted, the news station said.
Enoki admitted "these are difficult cases to investigate because you have to pinpoint it to an individual."
The FBI said technology has made hand-held lasers more powerful. Such devices are inexpensive and widely available on the Internet, giving some people the impression they are toys.
Even a 5-milliwatt laser — a common power for pointer devices — can cause damage if pointed at the eye for any length of time, and higher-powered devices provide less time to look away before damage occurs, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
A laser beam gets broader the farther it travels, and a pilot may see something akin to a flashlight or searchlight. Because it’s hard to focus on a plane, the light may momentarily play across a cockpit. The flashes are distracting at the least, and at worse they can be bright enough to cause temporary flash-blindness, experts say.
A 5-milliwatt green laser can be a distraction to pilots two miles away. A 125-milliwatt laser can cause a cockpit distraction more than 11 miles away, experts say.
Coast Guard Lt. Casey Corpe, who was at the controls of the C-130 when it was hit by the laser Tuesday night, said none of the crew was directly affected, but the incident caused concern.
The four-engine propeller plane was returning from an eight- to nine-hour patrol assisting the Missile Defense Agency with overwater security during a ballistic missile defense test off Kauai.
About six miles offshore, at an altitude of 1,900 feet, a green laser beam swept across the aircraft, Corpe said.
"Definitely a pretty powerful laser to reach that far and that high," Corpe said, likening it to a strong flashlight.
"It was very obvious where it was coming from," he said, adding the spot was 50 to 100 yards ashore in the Electric Beach and Tracks area near the Kahe power plant.
"I would urge people to stop," Corpe said. "And if you know someone that is doing it, to tell them (to stop). If you do have any information about somebody doing it, to report it to the proper authorities."
In October a Coast Guard air crew was forced to return to Barbers Point Air Station after someone flashed a laser at their MH-65 Dolphin helicopter when it was two miles offshore of Oahu and doing low-level training, the Coast Guard said.
Officials said that green laser strike came from the Makaha area.
The last thing a Coast Guard helicopter crew in that situation needs is the potentially blinding light of a laser.
"They are only 50 to 100 feet above the water at any one time, so it’s pretty close," Gilbride said.
In January a Coast Guard C-130 aborted a landing at Kahului Airport and was forced to return to Barbers Point after it was hit with a laser, officials said.
