(Creative Commons)

LAX recorded 102 such incidents in 2010. The nationwide figure nearly doubled since 2009, rising above 2,800, the highest figure since the agency began keeping track in 2005.

“This is a serious safety issue,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a news release. “Lasers can distract and harm pilots who are working to get passengers safely to their destinations.”

The increase in laser events can likely be explained by several factors, the agency says, including higher power lasers, increased reporting and green lasers, which are easier to spot than the typical red laser.

Glendale Police Sgt. Steve Robertson had a green laser pointed at his helicopter while on patrol in the mid-90s. The laser beam was like “a baseball to the face,” Robertson said, adding it burned both his corneas.

“It came through, and it lit up the entire cockpit,” he said. “It’s like in the movies when you see a missile come at the aircraft. It’s exactly the same.”

Robertson said no aircraft has yet crashed because a laser was pointed at it, but that such an event could lead to a crash in the future.

“This is not a video game. You cannot press the restart button,” he said. “You are dealing with people's lives.”

In the last 15 months, Robertson said the Glendale and Burbank police departments' joint air-support unit has been struck by lasers 14 times, resulting in nine arrests.

Reach reporter Andrew Khouri here.