[Kirkwood]

Can't cause damage to the pilot's eyes. The beam has to enter the pupil of the eye, so that means the pilot has to be looking at the source. The distance from the plane is likely miles and so the light is attenuated by atmospheric effects and the square of the distance from the source, plus it is affected by reflection according to Lambert's law (cosine law) on striking the window. In addition, blinding lasers are going to be either UV or IR and therefore invisible to the pilot. The pilot is behind UV and IR absorbing cockpit windows. If anything did happen, it was a simply a flash that temporarily saturated the photoreceptors of the eye (like a bright camera flash). Any affect on vision will be temporary.

[Squantos]

I didn't say it would .......Stay safe !

[FairOpinion]

Tell that to Lt. Daly.

"The Pentagon investigated Daly's claims and concluded from medical examinations that the injuries to his eye were consistent with retinal damage from a low-power laser. "

http://www.aeronautics.ru/nws002/ap036.htm

[AdamSelene235]

In addition, blinding lasers are going to be either UV or IR and therefore invisible to the pilot. The pilot is behind UV and IR absorbing cockpit windows.

I would expect most conventional glass to be transmissive at 1064 nm. Fused silica, BK7, etc. certainly are. Most glasses will soak up deep UV as will the atmosphere.

[Dan Evans]

the light is attenuated by the square of the distance from the source,

The inverse square law does not apply to a collimated beam. Diffraction would affect it, but not very much for a wide beam (10 cm or so).

blinding lasers are going to be either UV or IR and therefore invisible to the pilot.

Why would anyone use a UV or IR beam to blind someone behind UV and IR absorbing glass. Wouldn't they choose a visible wavelength?

[newzjunkey]

There was an earlier post about the Soviet Union developing a flash to catch a pilots attention so the laser could do its damage. That could be what happened here. We need to wait for more details.