Last Saturday, a laser was pointed at the cockpit of a Ryanair plane from Cologne that was coming in to land at Palma Airport. An Air Traffic Controllers social media post stated: "A laser is not a toy. It can cause blindness and seriously endanger the crew."
The National Police have been attempting to locate the individual who used the laser pointer, but they don't have a great deal of information to draw on. If the police are successful, this person will be subject to provisions of Spain's Air Safety Law.
This clearly and unequivocally prohibits the use of laser pointers or other luminous devices in the vicinity of airports. No objects or lights, including projectors or laser pointers, that could cause confusion, error, interfere with, or jeopardise the safety of air operations may be used anywhere within airport premises or their surroundings.
This is considered to be high risk, and the potential fines reflect the seriousness; they range from €30,000 to €600,000.
The incident with the laser came two weeks after operations at the airport had to be suspended for around half an hour because of the presence of a drone.