"People are moving to green," he said.
Like their predecessors, green laser pointers are sold for a variety of legitimate purposes. Businesspeople, for instance, use them in presentations; outdoor enthusiasts carry them in case they get lost.
But just as red lasers were used by drug dealers to harass police helicopters and by sports fanatics to distract basketball players taking free throws, green ones have been put to ill use. And with their longer range, experts say, green lasers pose a real danger because they can render pilots temporarily blind.
A green laser is used to point out stars and constellations. Pointed at an aircraft, a green laser can be dangerous.
(Bigha.com)
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Laser Basics: A laser creates, amplifies and transmits a narrow, concentrated beam of light. Laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.
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"You're in an airplane, you're on final approach and suddenly you can't see," said Dan Kidder, a spokesman for the National Air Transportation Association, a trade group that includes charter airlines. "You can't see your instruments. You can't see your runway. There's the potential for a major accident."
According to federal authorities, there have been about 400 reported instances of lasers being aimed at aircraft since the early 1990s.
But they started to receive national attention late last month, after a man in New Jersey allegedly aimed a laser at a plane landing at the Teterboro, N.J., airport. He has said he was pointing out a star to his 7-year-old daughter.
Although the incident in Anne Arundel occurred Dec. 31, it wasn't made public until this week. County police said their helicopter was searching for a hit-and-run suspect when a "high-intensity" green beam suffused the cockpit, distracting the officers and forcing them to change course.
Police said they traced the beam to a bonfire in woods near Pasadena. Edward Pannell, 38, admitted to pointing the laser at the helicopter but said he didn't think it was a big deal, according to police.
He now faces harassment charges that carry a combined penalty of 10 years in prison and several thousand dollars in fines.
Federal authorities have issued a general warning to pilots, who are now required to report encounters with lasers.
Authorities say that terrorist organizations may have discussed using lasers to bring down a plane but that none of the recent incidents has been found to have a terrorism connection.
Jack Hess, acting assistant special agent in charge of counter-terrorism for the FBI, said the apparent increase in incidents in the last month might be caused by the new reporting requirements.
"There are more incidents being reported, but we're not sure if there are more incidents," Hess said.
The military already has taken precautions.
Navy contractor Optra Inc. of Topsfield, Mass., designed a laser-detection device for Navy and Marine planes that is about the size of a matchbox and runs on AA batteries. It detects laser beams and warns pilots with a green, yellow or red light, depending on the strength of the beam.
Company President James Engel said the device has a flash memory card that holds a picture of the beam's origin and uses the Global Positioning System to find the plane's location when the laser is detected.
At companies that sell laser pointers, officials say they are concerned about the aircraft incidents and have warned customers not to point the lasers at other people.
But the controversy hasn't hurt business. In fact, John Acres, whose company, Bigha, sold the laser that was pointed at the plane in Teterboro, said the attention has brought in new customers.
"We've got more orders. We are sold out," said Acres, whose company is in Corvallis, Ore. "The whole industry has shot up because of this."
