Vegas Laser Lights Halted After Air-Pilot Complaints

LAS VEGAS - Federal regulators, worried that pilots flying over Las Vegas might be temporarily blinded, have pulled the plug on the laser light shows that flash nightly over this glittering resort city.

The lights were ordered shut off immediately within a 20-mile radius of McCarran International Airport until casinos can show they can keep the beams out of the eyes of pilots.

The ban by the Federal Drug Administration comes in response to increased complaints from pilots who say they have been momentarily unable to see after the light beams flashed in their cockpits. The FDA usually regulates lasers as medical devices.

"We must all do our parts to prevent the occurrence of a tragedy that could cost hundreds of lives," FDA compliance official Lillian Gill told a half-dozen casinos in a letter sent yesterday ordering the shut-off.

Gill said the ban affects only Las Vegas, but said her agency wouldn't hesitate to extend the ban to other areas where outdoor laser light shows might pose a ban to airplane pilots.

McCarran has received 51 reports of pilots temporarily blinded by the lights, including an Oct. 30 incident in which a co-pilot was forced to grab the controls after Southwest Airlines pilot Shelby LaCroix was temporarily blinded only three miles into a takeoff from the Las Vegas airport. "Had it hit me and the other pilot simultaneously, I shudder to think what would have happened," LaCroix said.

It has only been the last two years or so that laser light displays have gained popularity.

A handful of casinos shoot the colored lights out nightly in dancing displays above the city, while the pyramid-shaped Luxor hotel-casino aims a bright light directly into the sky from the tip of the pyramid.

Commercial pilots haven't been the only ones to complain. Las Vegas police helicopter pilots say they, too, have been temporarily blinded by the lights while patrolling above the city.