Not that I am defending this incident, but this headline is almost certainly a wild exaggeration.
From the article: "The flight landed safely a short time later, and the pilot was placed on medical leave, which is routine in such cases."
(Emphasis mine.)
Unless the laser-wilder is using something ungodly powerful, the pilot would have to stare into the beam and consciously override his blink reflex before damage could occur. It seems unlikely that you could even keep the laser focused on the cockpit for that long, at the speed planes move.
It is quite possible that to get burn damage to one's retinas which is why medical leave and evaluation by an ophthalmologist is routine. While I agree that it is not completely clear, I suspect that he did get at least mild damage or the choice of words would have been different.
From the article: "The flight landed safely a short time later, and the pilot was placed on medical leave, which is routine in such cases."
(Emphasis mine.)
Unless the laser-wilder is using something ungodly powerful, the pilot would have to stare into the beam and consciously override his blink reflex before damage could occur. It seems unlikely that you could even keep the laser focused on the cockpit for that long, at the speed planes move.