Sun, Jan 02, 2005
Suspect may have pointed laser at Cessna, Port Authority police
helicopter
It appears that law
enforcement authorities are beginning to take serious action
against people suspected of shining lasers at aircraft flying
at night. Police have identified and have questioned a man in
Parsippany (NJ) suspected of first shining a laser at a Cessna
aircraft flying overhead, and then making things worse for himself
by shining the same laser at the police helicopter that was
dispatched to hunt him down.
On Wednesday evening, the pilots of a Cessna aircraft reported
that someone had illuminated them with a laser over New Jersey,
according to Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesperson
Steve Coleman. Though the spokesperson did not identify the
aircraft, it must have been a bizjet, because it was described as
carrying "about a dozen passengers."
Investigators spent much of Friday trying to figure out where
the laser had come from, and on Friday evening, probably in an
attempt to flush out the perpetrator, a Port Authority police
helicopter was dispatched to the area. The helicopter was circling
the area where the Cessna was flying when the incident took place,
when someone made the dumb mistake of shining a laser beam at the
helicopter, which was clearly marked as a police chopper.
The crew quickly identified the source of the beam, and members
of the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force, as well as FBI agents,
swarmed into the area and questioned the man at his home. At press
time, no charges had been filed and no arrests had been made, but
the investigation is anything but over. Coleman added that
authorities are trying to figure out if the same person they talked
to has also been involved in similar incidents reported by other
pilots.
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