Farlig julegave - Laser - Curt Lewis

Your Christmas lights could blind airplane pilots, FAA says

Laser light displays have become a popular time-saving alternative to hanging Christmas lights outside homes. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images) Photo: Matt Cardy, Getty Images

If you're planning to dazzle your neighbors with laser holiday lighting this month, your friendly overhead airline pilots and the Federal Aviation Administration are kindly asking that you not blind them.

Star Shower and other Christmas laser lights have been booming in the last few years - there are several pages of them available on Amazon - and in recent years the FAA has cautioned residents against shining them at the sky. The Star Shower can project its laser 100 yards into the air, which is ample range to distract or disable a pilot.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said none of the 4,380 laser incidents reported to the agency this year involved holiday lights (laser pointers are a much bigger concern). Of course that was pre-December, and there have been similar cases in recent years, such as when a Coast Guard plane over Sacramento requested an emergency response because of Christmas lights below.

For many people, it doesn't feel like the holidays until the lights are hung up and twinkling. But how did the tradition start? Turns out it's the result of old-fashioned American innovation --and clever marketing. In 1880, Thomas Edison patented

"People who buy these new light displays should take precautions to make sure that the lights are hitting their houses and not shining off into the sky," Gregor said. "If we become aware of a situation where a laser light display affected pilots, we would start by asking the person to either adjust them or turn them off."

Flight instructor Jacob Wilson told a Birmingham, Ala., ABC affiliate this week that Star Shower and other lasers are a real danger to their eyes. "It can result in you no longer being able to use your instrumentation or properly control the aircraft," he said. "It can result in loss of life of crew members and passengers at that point."