I hear what you're saying - in the end, it becomes a matter of chance. I've
no doubt that under any circumstances a laser in the cockpit is something we
really don't need - if it happens to be during the likes of a SE approach
(especially in the event of it triggering a single-engine go-around) then
yes, it could most definately be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

I just hope it never happens to me, although I have to say I'd prefer it to
someone taking pot-shots with a rifle.





Regardless of what that web page said, or of your feelings
outlined above, I still put shining a laser, or for that matter
any other light source, at an aircraft - cockpit or not - in the
same category as shooting a rifle at an aircraft.

Sure, the probability of either bringing down the aircraft [or
even hitting it for that matter] is low. But mishap after mishap
report has identified the mishap as a chain of low probability
events and omissions that combined to render the mishap
inevitable. There is no way of some yahoo having fun pointing
his laser or rifle at an aircraft knowing whether or not the
aircraft is in the midst of such a chain, and that the momentary
distraction of a laser flash in a pilot's eye, or a round ripping
through a cockpit window might be the final event in the chain
that terminates the flight in a smoking pile of wreckage.

For verisimilitude, why don't you try that flight as an engine
out landing, with an electrical failure on a NORDO approach.
That might give us a better idea of whether or not a laser flash
can be distracting.
--
OJ III
[Email to Yahoo address may be burned before reading.
Lower and crunch the sig and you'll net me at comcast.]