Yes I was lucky in that I suffered no injury, the safe landing wasn't down to luck, nor did I suggest that. I didn't say that all laser attacks aren't that bad, just that mine wasn't as catastrophic as many people assume that they are. I know that my experiences are not uncommon.
As for your other points, in turn:
I wasn't blinded, I had a flash and temporary loss of night vision. Have you seen the runway lights at Manchester, if you had you would know that they are so bright that they too destroy your night vision.
If it had been a more powerful laser I may or may not have been so lucky, I don't know, it wasn't, nor would I know what was being used.
I think that without sight stabilisation and a good aiming device most, if not all laser illuminations of airborne aircraft will be fleeting. That's not to say that a bad man won't have these at his disposal, but most civilian events are from casual idiots.
As PNF I know that in this circumstance I was not incapacitated and could have acted as PF.
See point 1
See point 1
Very true, had I done something incorrect then the outcome may or may not have been so lucky, depending on what it was I had done and at what stage of flight. This hypothetical scenario has too many what ifs.
How do I know that a single pilot could have landed the aircraft in these circumstances? Because I was there and think that this event didn't impede my abilities any more than exposure to a close lightning flash. Quite evidently a single pilot, if blind, couldn't land the aircraft, but that wasn't what happened to me, I wasn't blind.
Genghis,
You have a good point, just because nothing bad has happened yet does not mean that something bad won't happen. I believe that some folk over assess the risk of damage to a pilot's eyes from currently easily available devices, but I am neither an opthalmologist nor a laser energy expert, so I could be wrong. Certainly in single pilot operations IF there is eye damage the outcome could be very poor.
Which all begs the question, what more needs to be done and can be done to mitigate the risk of an accident arising from a laser illumination incident.