FAA Issues Reminder on Holiday Laser Light Displays

The FAA is warning people to avoid holiday laser light displays that point into the sky and potentially distract or cause harm to pilots. “Each holiday season for the past several years, the FAA received reports from pilots who said they were distracted or temporarily blinded by residential laser-light displays,” the agency said in a notice late last week.

If people plan to use such systems, the FAA requests that they are aimed at houses and not shining into the sky. “People may not realize that systems they set up to spread holiday cheer can also pose a potential hazard to pilots flying overhead,” the FAA said. “It may not look like the lights go much farther than your house, but the extremely concentrated beams of laser lights actually reach much farther than most people think.”

The FAA will ask owners of such systems to adjust them or turn them off it they do affect pilots. However, if owners ignore such requests, they could face civil penalties, the agency warned. The agency established a Laser Incident Reporting Form for pilots to report incidents via mobile devices. The form can be submitted electronically or incident questionnaires can be emailed to [email protected].