AN AIR ambulance pilot has called for tougher sentences for people who shine lasers at aircraft following a rise in incidents.

The Association of Air Ambulances (AAA) has revealed that laser pointer attacks on UK medical emergency aircraft have increased three-fold in the last two years.

The association says just three offences of this kind were committed in 2015, but in 2016 there were ten reported laser attack incidents.

It is thought that there have been many more that have gone unreported.

Pilot Jay Steward, who has been with the Great North Air Ambulance Service for six years, said that tougher sentences are needed for people who put lives at risk by aiming laser pens at aircraft.

He said there was ‘no reason’ for people to be carrying lasers powerful enough to reach aircraft thousands of feet in the air and said the effects of the attacks could be devastating.

He said: “If you are flying at night, which is predominantly when these attacks happen because clearly the effects are less in the daytime, your eyes are used to the darkness and then if you suddenly experience a blinding flash, because that is how it manifests itself in the cockpit, your eyes do all sorts of daft things as they try to adjust.”

Mr Steward recounted an incident in November when a GNAAS pilot had a laser pointed at him three times whilst trying to land at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough with a patient on board.

He said: “There were three attacks and the last two happened within 100 metres of landing.

“It is absolutely risking people’s lives.

“If you think about it, if the laser had been a bit stronger or come from a slightly different direction and had actually blinded the pilot, the results would have been catastrophic.

“He was trying to land a big heavy machine full of fuel on a helipad next to a hospital A&E department – you can imagine how horrific the consequences could have been.

“There would have been massive loss of life.”

Air ambulances are not the only victims of laser attacks as there have been numerous incidents where commercial aircraft and police helicopters have been targeted.

Cleveland Police said it takes the issue very seriously. A spokesman added: “Shining a laser light at a pilot is extremely dangerous. It can cause temporary blindness, which for someone in charge of a helicopter can be catastrophic.”

In 2009 a Thornaby teenager was sentenced to four months in a young offenders’ institution after shining a laser pen at a KLM aircraft landing at Durham Tees Valley Airport.

Mr Steward believes that lengthy prison sentences need to be imposed on offenders to act as a serious deterrent.