Lights at Levi's Stadium possibly hazardous to airplane safety

The alarming number of stories surrounding Levi's Stadium, the new home of the San Francisco 49ers, haven't died down more than a year after the venue opened up in Santa Clara.

From fans complaining about the heat to issues with the stadium's turf, the site of Super Bowl 50 this upcoming February has been the talk of the NFL water cooler for some time now.

That's unlikely to change with new concerns over the stadium lights and how they are impacting commercial airplanes arriving at San Jose Mineta International Airport in Northern California.

Christina Kurowicki, a veteran pilot that has been serving the airport for the past five years, reported to a local NBC affiliate in the Bay Area that the lights coming from Levi's Stadium during night games were blinding her from seeing outside of the cockpit as she made her entrance into the high-traffic airport.

“At first I couldn’t really tell where it was coming from,” Kurowicki said, via NBC Bay Area. “We just knew that we were getting beams of light in our eye.”

We are pretty sure that beams of light in a pilot's eye while he/she is actually flying an airplane isn't necessarily a good thing.

As someone that has been to Levi's Stadium multiple times, I can report to you that commercial planes are heard directly overhead multiple times throughout the games. It has been yet another complaint of 49ers fans over the past year-plus.

Kurowicki continued:

“The captain I was flying with noticed where it was coming from and we heard other pilots in the area complaining about the lights coming from the stadium,” Kurowicki said. “And at that point all we were really worried about was getting the aircraft on the ground safely ... It was blinding. It was blinding." 

It goes without saying that the Federal Aviation Commission (FAA) has to take note of this issue. Anything seen as a hazard to patrons on commercial flights and unassuming citizens on the ground has to be of concern.

According to the Associated Press, at least six pilots have filed formal complaints with the FAA, Kurowicki being one of them.

FAA public affairs manager Ian Gregor had this to say about the complaints:

"The FAA relayed these concerns to the stadium operator, which agreed to provide the FAA with advance notice of all scoreboard testing and not to test or calibrate it at night during scheduled airfield hours."

Initial complaints came last summer when workers were testing the new scoreboard at Levi's Stadium. And while the team isn't aware of any further complaints, the NBA Bay Area report suggests that more came in as recently as December of 2014 — likely when San Francisco hosted the San Diego Chargers on a Saturday night.

There are certain avenues that can be pursued by the team here, and it's not to the point where Levi's can't host night games. However, this is something that's going to have to be fixed in short order. With a start time of just before 4:00 p.m. PST, Super Bowl 50 will be played under the lights, at least in the second half of the game.

Check out Vincent's other work on eDraft.com and follow him on Twitter @VincentFrankNFL