Florida Man in Hot Water After Pointing Laser at Helicopter

  • 12 years ago
A man is in hot water after blinding pilots in a helicopter during a search.

Lasers can be a good form of entertainment if they are used in a safe environment.

However for a Florida man, playing with a laser landed him in some trouble. The 24-year-old male from Winter Park is now facing charges after he allegedly pointed a laser at a Sheriff’s helicopter 8 times, blinding pilots while they were trying to chase a suspected burglar.

The man reportedly told police that he wanted to see how far the laser beam would reach, however pointing a laser at an aircraft is a felony act. The beam reportedly engulfed the cockpit eight times, causing the pilots to halt the chase of the burglary suspect.

A sheriff’s office pilot stated “Airliners fly at 10-20 thousand feet, the beam gets wider as it gets higher so it can become like a very big flood light even though it's a small laser purchased on the Internet”.

Last year, another man, Alexander William Schiller purposely pointed a hand-held laser at a Royal Canadian Mounted Police helicopter. The crew was on duty at the time and the entire incident was caught on film.