Lasers and aviation safety

Lasers are powerful beams of light that can come from a pointer, or a more powerful device. In aviation, lasers can be dangerous to pilots and other people because they can cause a bright lightthat can make it hard to see where they are going. To prevent pilots from being distracted by the bright light of a laser, aviation safety rules say that people must not point lasers at aircraft, airports, control towers, or any other part of the aviation environment. It is illegal to shine a laser at an aircraft, and can also be dangerous to passenger planes and helicopters in flight.