Probe into Laser Strike on Mnangagwa’s Pilots
The pilots reported being blinded by lights that looked like lasers as they approached RG Mugabe International Airport.
Probe into Laser Strike on Mnangagwa’s Pilots
A multi-agency probe is in progress following reports that Emmerson Mnangagwa’s pilots were targeted with a ground laser strike as they approached Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.
According to ZimLive, Mr Mnangagwa was returning from a trip to Mozambique when the incident apparently occurred on July 12 shortly before 7 PM on an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 737.
According to accounts, the pilots reported being blinded by lights that looked like lasers as they approached the airport.
A multi-agency investigation comprising the Zimbabwean Air Force, Police, Civil Aviation Authority, and intelligence agencies has been initiated, with authorities taking the incident “very seriously.”
Mr Mnangagwa’s spokesman George Charamba declined to discuss the exact nature of the identified threat, saying doing so would “jeopardise investigations currently underway.”
Probe into Laser Strike on Mnangagwa’s Pilots
“I can confirm the incident which has affected or menaced many other airports, foremost Gatwick in England. The misdemeanour has to be nipped in the bud,” he said.
Investigators will also be seeking to establish if there is a link to recent unsolved break-ins at the private homes of the president; his son, David, and the offices of his nephew, Tongai Mnangagwa, during which nothing of value was taken.
Shining a laser at airplanes landing or taking off, known as a laser strike, is widespread in Europe and the United States but there are no previously disclosed incidents in Zimbabwe.
High-powered lasers can interfere with pilots, distracting, disorienting, or even temporarily blinding them during critical phases of flight.
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The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in a report released in January this year, said the highest number of laser strikes occur at low altitudes and at night when pilots are busy with take-off or landing procedures.
