Froma regular pax point of view I can only commend the attide of the crew and the airline . Assuming two pilots as is normal to JFK and one has impaired vision suddenly i would prefer a return to LHR to heading off intot he unknown with JFK winter weather and a dozen other unopredicatble possibilities with only one pilot comfortable with what they can actually see. Quite astonished at the few critical psots and opinions .
It does seem odd about the 'penetration into the cockpit froma ground based laser assuming the plane is climbing in spite of SE England population density there are alot of uninhabiited areas west of LHR quite heavily wooded too and if the laser is coloured it may have just caught the unfiortunate pilots attention and the automatic 'look at the light response' caused the problem . Also that is an area where aaircraft on Compton depatures turn further to the west than the inital track from Heathrow and that could mean it waqs in a bit of a right bank whan it happened which could explain how the pilot saw it in the first place.
i would have thought/hoped there had been enough publicity about the dangers of this to stop even hardened idiots doing it but it seems sadly not.