Laser beams pointed at the skies are an increasing risk for pilots. Few know that the light, which looks like a small dot from down below, is actually a wide spectrum that can fill up a significant portion of an airplane's wide screen. Other than the potentially distractive effects, the intense light can temporarily blind pilots and even cause eye damage.
Despite the hazard, The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) has reported an increasing number of reports of laser pointer sightings by pilots. In 2014, there have been 3,894 cases, more than double the tally from 5 years earlier.
Almost half of the 17,688 events reported by the FAA happened in 5 States: California, Texas, Florida, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Of course, this might just be related to the population and size of these states.
If we normalize the numbers by population, we get a different rank.
For example, D.C. and Hawaii actually have the highest number of reported events per population: 256 every 1 million inhabitants. Nevada, Arizona, Oregon are the bigger states next up in the list with 158 - 129 events per million inhabitants.
Even when normalized for its population, however, California is still quite up the rank, with 86 lasers beams reported every 1 million people.
Number of Events per 1 M inhabitants (2010 - 2014)
Last year, Houston and LA were the cities where most events were reported. A few incidents reported a white laser light. Something quite interesting, given that the first white lasers have been announced only in July 2015!
2014 Events Interactive table of number of events per location