Damn bastards. I heard its very common at the Dubai airport too.
Presumably a couple of frequencies are favoured by these devices, so can't they kit out the pilots w/ safety goggles for approach? Sure its a band-aid fix, but its a start.
I'd be surprised if some pilots aren't already doing this.
There are only really 2 or 3 wavelengths right now with commercially available >100 mW lasers. However, they also happen to span the visible spectrum (red, blue, green). So you'd need a narrow band filter for each of those wavelengths so as not to block vision entirely. Narrow band filters get expensive fast.
Modern flight control computers can land an airplane autonomously. To protect pilots eyes, what about LCD windscreens that black out momentarily if laser light is detected. Same technology that's used in auto-darkening welding masks.
Presumably a couple of frequencies are favoured by these devices, so can't they kit out the pilots w/ safety goggles for approach? Sure its a band-aid fix, but its a start.