Chances are you've played with a laser pointer - especially if you have a kitten. The harmless little light can hide a deadly danger: knocking down planes! But calm down: it is not enough to point the laser skyward and expect disaster, that would be too sadism.

But how can such a tiny light bring down such a well-equipped aircraft? It turns out that the light intensifies upon reaching the cabin and can blind the pilot. In 2013 alone, more than 4, 000 similar cases were reported in the US - and about 35 pilots need medical attention.

The light in the cabin has a strobe effect: it's like the pilot is in a ballad, you know? Vision and reflexes are compromised and may lead to flight risk. The FBI even released an image of how the laser is viewed from above:

Small beam of light turns into a strobe "big ballad" high up

Just kidding?

Commercial lasers have intensified since the 1990s. Since then, it's very easy to find them in any little trinket shop. The limit for the object is 5 milliwatts, but many people don't know how strong this can be and want to find out how far the light reaches. And that results in the image we saw above.

In the US, 19-year-old teenager Adam Gardenshire was sentenced to 30 months in prison for distracting pilots with a more powerful laser than could be marketed. And don't think that no one will find out about it: the aircraft have trackers that narrow the area of ​​possible "attacks, " and the FBI works out a reward scheme for reporting such abuse.

These higher-powered lasers are more common in green colors and should be restricted to scientific experiments - and that doesn't include aiming at airplanes or playing with your kitten. They can reach up to 1 watt (200 times more powerful than household lasers). That is: be content to use the toy to point to serious things, such as a whiteboard or presentation.