Lasers will kill crews, says wife of air medic
A mother has issued a tearful plea for people to stop shining laser lights at the local air ambulance her husband works for.
In a video posted on Facebook, Claire Tucker, from Melksham said she fears her husband, Dan, could die in a crash or be blinded after recent repeat attacks.
She said: “People don’t understand that these lights can blind people and cause a helicopter crash that would see my husband die and whoever he was rescuing die in a fiery horrific helicopter crash.”
Mrs Tucker is a paramedic of more than
19 years and her husband works as a critical care paramedic for South Western Ambulance air ambulance.
On Sunday, September 7 Mr Tucker’s team at Wiltshire Air Ambulance came under a “laser attack” in Trowbridge with the light shining directly in his eye on board the helicopter.
The crew had to abort the training mission they were on, saying it was “fortunate” it wasn’t a real emergency. It is the fourth time this year the crew have been victim to laser incidents.
Mrs Tucker has said she was “gobsmacked” anyone would target the air ambulance team, risking the lives of the team and patients.
In a moving Facebook video, she said: “It’s not a game, I’ve got three children in bed and daddy needs to come home. It’s bad enough flying, its dangerous enough without this.”
Mrs Tucker explained that when a laser light hits night vision goggles, it is magnified - which could blind a pilot or disorientate them enough to cause a crash landing.
She said: “At night they wear big night vision goggles, when the laser hits the night vision goggles it magnifies it. And to reach the high in the sky these are illegal lasers, they aren’t silly toys - these are massive lasers.
“Last night Dan was in the helicopter and all of a sudden as they were trying to land they had a laser attack. The laser light came in and caught Dan’s goggles, magnifying it. Number one it could blind him, it could mean that he never gets to see his children again as it wrecks the retina.
“But if they were unlucky enough to hit the pilot’s goggles, it could A) blind them but B) disorient the pilot. Which means the helicopter hits the ground.
“You are going to cause a helicopter crash which means my kids on Christmas day are not going to have their Dad.”
Mrs Tucker explained the fear she has every night when she hears her husband’s helicopter take off.
She said: “I don’t want a knock on the door in the middle of the night from the police saying that the helicopter has gone down.
“Every time the helicopter takes off from where we live, every time he takes off at night I can’t get back to sleep.
“I’m petrified that he’s not going to come home and then when I hear it coming into land I think, ‘ok another one over.’”
Speaking to our sister website Somerset Live, Mrs Tucker said: “It would mean the end of my world if that happened, I can’t even imagine the scenarios that would bring about.
“Dan was seeing red spots for a while after the laser caught him. It was such a close call that night - the closest one yet. I am absolutely petrified of something happening. My daughters love their daddy - he’s our world.”
Mrs Tucker is going to start an online petition to stop the import of the lasers from abroad which she hopes will be debated by Parliament.
She said: “I want online retailers to stop having these listed and to stop them being imported.
“All I want to say to people is that if they know someone who has a laser, take it off them, bin it, get rid of it. You are going to kill my husband if you do this.
“What I don’t understand is how people can do this to a crew of people who risk their lives to save others. “
Chief pilot Matt Wilcock said about the incident: “Our team were operating in the Trowbridge area at 21:55 hours.
“It was a training mission; we have to land so often at night just to rehearse our skills and one of the few landing sites that we can do that at is in Hilperton.
“As they were operating in the area someone decided to shine a laser at them. We believe it came from the south west area of Trowbridge.
“It is only by the grace of God that we haven’t had a patient on board or that we haven’t been flying to a lifesaving incident when these laser attacks have occurred.”
He added: “Nobody should be shining laser pens at aircraft. You don’t know who that aircraft is coming to help and just think about if it was en route to help you or one of your loved ones and a laser attack forced us to abort the mission.”
Shining a laser at an aircraft is a criminal offence, with a punishment of an unlimited fine and up to five years in prison.
■ Anyone with information is asked to contact Wiltshire Police via 101.