ATLANTA — A local airline passenger told Channel 2 Action News he was temporarily blinded by a laser pointer aimed at his plane as it landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
"It was definitely terrifying," said Delta Air Lines passenger Scott Reynolds.
Reynolds described over Skype from Virginia what happened to him minutes before his flight from West Palm Beach landed in Atlanta Wednesday night.
"A green light hit my left eye, and I jumped, because when a green light blinds you, at first, you think the engine blew up or something outside your window happened," Reynolds explained.
Reynolds said the green light flashed him a second time.
"At that point, I knew it was a laser or something from the ground, and then I looked down and I could see the green laser moving around," Reynolds said.
It's illegal to shine laser pointers at planes for good reason.
"It bathes the aircraft in a green light, and if it hits a pilot's eye it can be very dangerous,” said Capt. Rick Dominquez, Executive Administrator for the Airline Pilots Association.
Federal Aviation records Channel 2 investigative reporter Aaron Diamant found online show the number of reports the agency receives is soaring.
Diamant discovered pilots have reported 35 laser pointer incidents in Metro Atlanta so far this year compared to 46 all of last year. Nationally, the numbers are up, too. FAA reports 4024 incidents so far this year compared to 3895 in 2014
"I'm not an aviation expert, but I know that at that point if I was flying a plane, I could have been in trouble," said Reynolds.
As for Wednesday's sighting, a Delta spokesperson emailed Diamant a statement saying, "Delta is in touch with the FAA on this episode and will do everything it can to assist the FAA and other authorities to investigate and apprehend perpetrators."
Right now, if you get caught aiming a laser pointer at a plane could you face a federal fine as high as $11,000. Congress is considering legislation that would make it criminal.