you re going to need a $5 gadget from a novelty store and do something really stupid with it. the laser pointers we hear so much about. sorry for sounding like a bit of a mom here. those things are not toys. if you shine one in the wrong direction, i don t know, say at an airplane that s in flight, the police and the fbi would like to have a word with you. correct that. stern word with with you. the faa says this happens almost 4,000 times just in the last year. somebody shining a laser beam at planes or helicopters in flight and it happened last night five times in one spot out on long island, new york. five commercial airline pilots called down and said they were being hit by a green laser from the ground. here s what it sounded like when they called it in. i thought it was a rogue laser but they were aiming for us a couple times.
commercial passenger planes struck with this blinding green laser. it happened at the most critical point of flight. takeoff and landing. the flights were not very far from jfk, flying over long island when multiple pilots alerted controllers. take a listen. i thought it was a rogue laser, but they were definitely aiming for us a couple of times. i ve had two aircraft fly over where you are, got struck bay green laser. 185, you see any green, be careful. a green laser might be in your vicinity. 185, we just had a laser strike. left side. imagine this you re in a car that s pitch black and a camera flash goes off. that s exactly what it s like for these pilots in the cockpit. it s a dangerous distraction, these lasers can disorient, even temporarily blind the pilot. in some cases pilots have been hospitalized with burned corneas. we know these aircraft were at about 8,000 feet i should say.
aircraft was struck. i thought it was just a rogue laser. they were aiming for us a couple times. we saw it a couple times into the cockpit. you see the green laser might be in your vicinity right now. american 185 we just had a laser strike left side. reporter: imagine this. imagine you re in a car, it s pitch black and a camera flash goes off. that s what it s like in the cockpit and consequences could be deadly. the lasers can even cause damage to the pilot s eyes and in some cases pilots have been hospitalized with burned corneas. sadly though, we see thousands of these laser strikes nationwide. just last year alone nearly 4,000 cases were reported to the faa. so now in this case the fbi is investigating who is responsible. it really is tough to track these individuals down but police have had success in the