All I can find is a review article from 2016, in a reputable British journal. It says:
"Only one case of alleged retinal damage to a pilot resulting from laser targeting of aircraft has been reported(4), although not in a peer review ophthalmic journal. This case is suspect because first and foremost, the metrology and exposure geometry would suggest insufficient energy could have entered the eye to produce irreversible damage and secondly the fundus anomaly is in the wrong location, the wrong shape and resulted in an extremely transient reported loss of VA with full recovery. Fortunately, with the exception of this suspect report, there have been no other recorded incidents of permanent damage resulting from directing “laser pointers” at the aircraft. The practice is however totally unacceptable given the potential consequences of distracting a pilot at a critical time and has now resulted in prosecutions and in some cases prison sentences. Unfortunately even with the possibility of custodial sentences such incidents are on the increase with more than 1500 such incidents being reported in the last 12 months within the UK"
That suspect report was:Gosling DB, O’Hagan JB & Quhill FM. Blue laser-induced retinal injury in a commercial pilot at 1300 ft. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2016;87(1):69-70.
The submersible green laser from Big Blue is less than 1 mW, so is a Class 2 laser. The eye safety of Class 2 lasers is summarized here:
Yes, you can distract a pilot searching for you with your class 2 laser; no, you can't harm his eyes, according to the review articles above. Even so, that distraction can be dangerous to the pilot and his aircraft handling.....hence in many/most/all (?) countries the malicious use of a class 2 laser, or any laser, against an aircraft is illegal. But, as quoted some posts above, in the US (and maybe elsewhere) an exception is a laser used as a distress alerting device. That is our context here. I'm going to keep my Big Blue green laser clipped to me, thank you.
