BAY AREA, Calif. -- Bay Area pilots are experiencing it all too often: a colored laser beam aimed into their cockpit that many say it is, literally, an attack.

"If it's a powerful enough laser, it can completely incapacitate you," said Kerry Smith, KTVU's helicopter pilot.

The Federal Aviation Administration says there have been about 3,000 reported laser incidents nationally in five years.

"In the Bay Area, there have been literally dozens and dozens of laser illuminations reported by pilots at the three major airports," says FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.

Kerry Smith and a photographer managed to capture a laser attack on a camera as the beam searched for their helicopter from the backyard of a San Jose home.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department is investigating.

"The last thing we want, especially in the Bay Area, is for an aircraft to come down in a residential area," said Smith.

Rob Heyde, a Santa Clara County Sheriff's department pilot, was recently hit by a laser while flying in his helicopter.

In response, the sheriff's special operations unit set a trap, flying continuously over the same neighborhood and, this time, videotaping the attacker.

"From infra-red camera, he was standing in a stance targeting the helicopter as it went by," says Heyde.

Finding and purchasing a laser is as simple as searching for one online. In fact, because lasers have become so common, many pilots say the long term solution will be changing the public's awareness and attitude about just how dangerous lasers can be to aircraft.

The FAA is considering forming a regional task force on laser attacks combining federal and local law enforcement.

Some pilots say the main concerns include the increasing number of cases and the possibility of terrorist acts.

Most pilots KTVU spoke with say the most effective public awareness campaign would include arrests and convictions.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff's case is one of the few that put someone behind bars.

"It's satisfying because when after an arrest is done you fly for a couple of weeks and you don't get hit with a laser. Previously, before this arrest, it seemed like every other time we flew somebody is basically harassing you with a laser," said Heyde.

There is no word on when the FAA might actually organize a regional task force, but many pilots want to see it sooner not later.

They do not want a deadly crash to be the takeoff point.