Air ambulance worker hit in the eye with laser while mid-air in ‘senseless’ attack

Alex Clark said his crew have been lasered ‘numerous times’ (Picture: PA)

An air ambulance crew member feared for his sight after a beam from a laser pen was shone into his helicopter.

As Alex Clark, 30, was flying back to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) base in Wakefield, Yorkshire, last Friday, the aircraft was targeted with a laser.

Clark suffered a burned cornea while he was 1,500ft above Bradford.

‘A green laser went straight through the right side of my goggles, causing them the flare-out,’ he said.

‘As I’ve turned my head, it’s hit my right eye. Initially, I couldn’t see for about 30 seconds and, after that, I got quite blurred vision. It really affected me.’

The father-of-two said he tried to carry out the job he had been phoned to do but the YAA technical crew member was forced to turn back to the Nostell base.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) technical crew member suffered from a burnt cornea (Picture: PA)

Clark was forced to head back to the base in Nostell, near Wakefield (Picture: PA)

Clark woke up bleary-eyed the next morning, he said, with an optician telling him his cornea had been singed.

The injury healed within a few days, though Clark said he was ‘100%’ worried that the incident could have been a lot worse.

‘This is the one career I want and if this affects my eyesight,’ he said, adding that it could have unfolded differently if the pilot had been hit with the laser instead.

YAA said in a statement yesterday that what happened to Clark is the latest in a ‘disturbing rapid escalation in laser attacks’.

‘Over the course of a single week, YAA has been subjected to three separate and deliberate laser assaults,’ the service said.

‘These attacks, characterised by their intermittent and seemingly random nature, have left the YAA searching for answers, as there appears to be no discernible pattern or motive behind these acts of senseless stupidity.’

County ambulance officials say the service has been targeted by laser pointers three times in only a week (Picture: PA)

YAA chief pilot Owen McTeggart said that the laser attack risks grounding an air ambulance trying to reach someone in need.

‘It doesn’t take much for the eyes to be permanently damaged by a laser, and while the laser itself might not be a danger if it doesn’t contact the eyes, it is a massive distraction for the crew during a critical stage of flight and causes much distress,’ he said.

Clark added: ‘Unfortunately, we have been lasered numerous times. This one time has just been one that’s really affected me.

‘For the laser to put a burn into my eye at 1500ft means this is quite a serious laser pen.’

Mike Harrop, YAA chairman, called on those pointing their laser beams up to the skies to think of his crew’s well-being and safety.

‘Our crew shouldn’t fear flying on a shift at YAA, all because someone somewhere finds it amusing to shine lasers at aircraft, or they are ignorant to the dangers they are putting our crew in,’ Harrop said.

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