A statement penned by the head of the GPIAA, Álvaro Neves, stressed that “it is because it has been more than proven (...) that lasers can temporarily blind pilots and put the safety of aircraft at risk, and because of the importance of this matter, that we have asked our Irish counterpart (the AAIU) to carry out a technical investigation into an occurrence in Porto that involved an Irish airline.”
Mr. Neves added that during his time as head of the GPIAA he has “dealt with hundreds of reports of these kinds of bad pranks.”
A recent report in newspaper Correio da Manhã (CM) highlighted that such incidents have been reported in Lisbon and Porto, but any measures have yet to be adopted.
In its statement, the GPIAA stressed the number of such incidents in Portugal is growing.
“In 2014, 294 laser attacks were registered, 107 of which were in Porto. In 2015, 264 occurrences were reported, 105 of which were in Porto. And so far in 2016, 148 events have been registered, which leads me to conclude that because authorities are not able to intervene, crews consider it pointless reporting the incidents and don’t bother”, it reflected.
The GPIAA told CM that it has put forward “dozens of complaints” about laser attacks on cockpits, and that “all proceedings were shelved.”
“On the one hand they are proceedings against unknown individuals, on the other hand the judges do not consider it dangerous”, Álvaro Neves said in comments to the newspaper.
The GPIAA revealed that most laser attacks happen on Friday and Saturday nights along the banks of Lisbon’s Tagus and Porto’s Douro rivers.
“It is hard to believe that a green light from a laser the size of a pen could potentially bring down an airplane or a helicopter by temporarily blinding the pilot. But that potential is real. The effects of pointing lasers at flight crews from ground distances that can reach cockpits, include giving pilots a fright as well as blinding them with flashes or even temporarily damaging their sight”, the GPIAA elaborated in its statement.
For this reason, the national authority added, organisations that represent airlines and aviation organisations believe that Portugal “should never ignore this risk, which is tending to increase.”
“There is no wonder that airlines operating in Portugal, pilots and air organisations are questioning why no measures have been adopted on any level to protect the pilots’ work from laser attacks”, the GPIAA slammed.
The bureau also queried why, seeing as pointing lasers at aircraft is an offence by law, heftier fines and even prison sentences are not contemplated in general as well as penal laws “so that Magistrates can once and for all consider this type of act serious.”