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B757 captain reported green laser strike while flying over central alabama.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 915050 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201010 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1801-2400 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZTL.ARTCC |
| State Reference | GA |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Night |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B757-200 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Cruise |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Flying Captain |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown |
Narrative:
Aircraft hit by laser while flying over a sparsely populated area of rural alabama. Considering the location of the laser it would appear the user had a very clear view of the sky in a location excellent for astronomical observation. It would follow that our strobes; even at FL400; would also be clearly visible to the user. For this reason there is little doubt in my mind the attack was intentional. I saw a brief series of flickers and detected movement of the beam that would indicate the user was 'zeroing in' on us as a target. The beam was bright green and very obvious to me in the cockpit. After the initial flash I avoided looking at that location but did see another flash following the first by approximately 60 seconds. The first officer did no see it at all as it was on the left side of the airplane and there were no noticeable affects from the laser on the captain.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: B757 Captain reported green laser strike while flying over central Alabama.
Narrative: Aircraft hit by laser while flying over a sparsely populated area of rural Alabama. Considering the location of the laser it would appear the user had a very clear view of the sky in a location excellent for astronomical observation. It would follow that our strobes; even at FL400; would also be clearly visible to the user. For this reason there is little doubt in my mind the attack was intentional. I saw a brief series of flickers and detected movement of the beam that would indicate the user was 'zeroing in' on us as a target. The beam was bright green and very obvious to me in the cockpit. After the initial flash I avoided looking at that location but did see another flash following the first by approximately 60 seconds. The First Officer did no see it at all as it was on the left side of the airplane and there were no noticeable affects from the laser on the Captain.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.