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A Virgin Atlantic flight bound for New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport was forced to turn back to London Sunday night after someone pointed a laser beam at the airplane's cockpit.
The flight from London's Heathrow Airport made its way across Ireland before doubling back, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
"Probably about an hour into the flight we had a tannoy, and it said the second pilot had been shot in the eye with a laser during take-off, and we were going back to Heathrow," passenger Beth McHutchinson told the BBC.
Flight No. V25 left around 8:10 p.m. GMT. It was expected to arrive in New York around 11 p.m. EST.
Just miles outside Heathrow Airport, the plane's pilot alerted air traffic controllers to the apparent laser beam.
"Following this incident the first officer reported feeling unwell," Virgin Atlantic said in a statement released to The Guardian Sunday. "The decision was taken by both pilots to return to Heathrow rather than continue the transatlantic crossing. The safety of our crew and customers is a top priority and we apologize for any inconvenience to those on board."
The newspaper reported London's Metropolitan police received a report of the laser incident around 9:35 p.m. GMT.
Passengers were scheduled to leave on another flight Monday afternoon.
"This is not an isolated incident," said Jim McAuslan, general secretary of the British Airline Pilot's Association, in a statement Monday. "Aircraft are attacked with lasers at an alarming rate and with lasers with ever-increasing strength. It is an incredibly dangerous thing to do.
"Shining a laser at an aircraft puts that aircraft, its crew and all the passengers on board at unnecessary risk. Modern lasers have the power to blind, and certainly to act as a huge distraction and to dazzle the pilots during critical phases of flight."
According to data from Britain's Civil Aviation Authority, pilots reported 1,440 laser incidents in the United Kingdom alone in 2014, the latest year for which complete data was available.
