Virgin Atlantic was forced to return one of its transatlantic flights to Heathrow shortly after take off, following a "laser-beam incident".
The New York-bound Airbus A340 service was on its way to New York when one of its pilots was apparently "dazzled" by a laser beam pointed at the cockpit.
The BBC news website has published an air traffic control recording of the incident her, in which a crew member reports "a medical issue with one of the pilots after a laser incident after take-off".
The Twitter page for Aviation Policing at Heathrow airport also confirmed that an "Aircraft [has been] forced to return to Heathrow after being hit by a laser strike".
The threat of laser pointers being directed at aircraft has been an issue for some time - back in 2011 Business Traveller reported on the rise of reported incidents in the UK, from just 30 in 2007 to 1,600 in the first nine months of 2011 (see news October 2011).
Mark Caswell
