UK CAA seeks legislation over laser pointers

Andrew Haines, chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), has called for people found to be carrying laser pointers to be arrested to help curb the number of laser attacks on aircraft. Although it is an offence to act in a manner “likely to endanger an aircraft” under the existing Air Navigation Order 2009, it is not against the law in the UK to be in possession of a laser pointer. Haines and the British Airline Pilots Association support new legislation to make possession a criminal offence.