A B737 captain reported bright reflections from three solar fields southwest of their departure airport caused temporary blindness during climbout.

Home

Browse by month

Random

Latest

About

Contact

Attributes
ACN	1266580
Time
Date	201505
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	LAS.Airport
State Reference	NV
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dawn
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 183 Flight Crew Total 4164 Flight Crew Type 1705
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

Narrative:

We were departing las. We were on the SID passing boach at [dawn]. With the sun coming up; we were temporarily blinded by the bright glare from three man-made objects southwest of our departure airport. I am told they are solar reflectors; but the reflection off of them was extremely bright to [the extent] that when I looked away I was seeing spots for several minutes.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 Captain reported bright reflections from three solar fields southwest of their departure airport caused temporary blindness during climbout.

Narrative: We were departing LAS. We were on the SID passing BOACH at [dawn]. With the sun coming up; we were temporarily blinded by the bright glare from three man-made objects southwest of our departure airport. I am told they are solar reflectors; but the reflection off of them was extremely bright to [the extent] that when I looked away I was seeing spots for several minutes.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.