States combat rising number of laser strikes on aircraft

April 25, 2017 at 2:35 p.m. | Updated April 25, 2017 at 2:50 p.m.

by Associated Press

In a March 14, 2017 photo, Michigan State Police pilot Jerry King, shows a anti-laser shield in his office at a state police facility at Capital Region International Airport, in Lansing, Mich. Pilots use the anti-laser shield on their helmet when they are trying to pinpoint the source of a laser that is being shined at them or other aircraft. Michigan is poised to join a growing list of states and enact its own stiff law that criminalizes increasingly frequent laser attacks that are endangering pilots and their passengers. (AP Photo/David Eggert)
In a March 14, 2017 photo, Michigan State Police pilot Jerry King, shows a anti-laser shield in his office at a state police facility at Capital Region International Airport, in Lansing, Mich. Pilots use the anti-laser shield on their helmet when they are trying to pinpoint the source of a laser that is being shined at them or other aircraft. Michigan is poised to join a growing list of states and enact its own stiff law that criminalizes increasingly frequent laser attacks that are endangering pilots and their passengers. (AP Photo/David Eggert)

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan is poised to join a growing list of states that are making it a crime to attack aircraft with lasers, which endanger pilots and passengers.

Legislation approved Tuesday by the state Senate would make it a five-year felony to intentionally shine a laser at an aircraft, similar to a stiff federal law. The bills could soon reach Gov. Rick Snyder.

Twenty of the 22 states with such statutes have put them on the books in the last dozen years, a period in which the number of reported laser strikes nationwide spiked from 300 a year to 7,000.

Though there have been no known air crashes due to lasers, authorities alarmed by the surge in incidents hope having state laws will deter attacks and take the burden off federal authorities.

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