Tila Tequila

Why did my flight make an emergency landing? Is "hit by laser" a feasible claim?

I was reminded of this since the anniversary of 9/11. It was a few years ago. I was on a domestic flight, we reached cruising altitude and almost right after that we were informed that the airplane was going go make an emergency landing. It was really scary.

The reason given was a problem with the oil pressure in one engine, and I can accept that. Along the landing strip were lots of police cars and emergency vehicles – which didn’t help comfort any of us passengers. Is this pretty much standard procedure?

After landing we waited for a bit and were sent to a different gate and got another plane pretty fast.

The next day a friend of mine said he had heard a claim that the flight I was on was hit by laser. Unless it was a military grade laser there’s no way. I thought maybe laser pointer or something aimed at the cockpit?

How feasible is the laser claim? I only heard about it 2nd hand. There were a lot of law enforcement and emergency vehicles along the runway but I figured it was standard for an emergency landing.