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US: UPDATED - 2016 laser incidents up 33% over same period in 2015

UPDATED May 5 2019: In April 2019, FAA released new data that lowered the totals for some years, especially 2015 and 2016. The story and chart below uses the older, original data originally released by FAA showing 7,703 laser illuminations reported in 2015. Statistics elsewhere at LaserPointerSafety.com use the new data of 7,346 reported in 2015. For more on the FAA change, see this story.


From January 1 through May 28 2016, pilots filed 2,925 reports of laser illuminations with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. This is a 33% increase over the 2,194 reports filed during the same period in 2015.

2016-05-28 Number Jan 1 - May 28 600w



LaserPointerSafety.com estimates there will be over 8,500 laser incidents reported for 2016. This is based on comparing the number of illuminations Jan 1 - May 28 2016, with the average of the same period in the past four years.

2016-05-28 Number per year 600w