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US: FAA-reported laser incidents up significantly in 1st half of 2015

There were 2,750 reports of laser illuminations of aircraft in the U.S., from January 1 through July 3 2015, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. This is a substantial increase over laser/aircraft incidents during the same time period in previous years:

Laser incidents Jan 1 - July 3 2010-2015 450w


Based on past years’ trends, this means that at the end of 2015, there could be between about 5,600 and 7,400 incidents. (The range is because in some years, the second half of the year had 2.04 to 2.71 times the number of incidents in the first half.) We estimate 2015 is most likely to have about 6,300 incidents. This would be a 62% increase over the 2014 total of 3,894 incidents.

Laser incidents 2010-estimated 2015 450w


Stated on a daily basis, the number of incidents is expected to rise from 10.7 per day in 2014 to somewhere between about 15 and 20 incidents per day in 2015:

Laser incidents per day 2010-est2015 450w


2015 information provided by FAA on July 10 2015. Statistical analysis done by LaserPointerSafety.com based on prior year FAA records.