Law enforcement in Fairfax County, Virginia, recently encountered a laser pointer allegedly targeting a police helicopter from an apartment building.
The incident happened late Friday when the Fairfax 1 helicopter was helping Virginia State Police look for a suspect who fled in Lorton, Fox 5 reported Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a young man allegedly pointed the laser at the aircraft while standing on the balcony of an apartment on Ashland Woods Lane.
“Detectives from our Special Investigation Division were able to identify the 25-year-old man and arrested him for interference with the operation of an aircraft. He was released on a secured bond,” the Fairfax County Police Department reported in a social media post.
The agency also shared aerial video footage which captured the moment the laser was seen flashing across the sky.
“Pointing a laser at an aircraft is illegal and also a very bad idea when that aircraft is a police helicopter,” the department told followers.
According to the Code of Virginia:
Any person who interferes with or threatens to interfere with the operation of any aircraft, unless he is authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration or the armed forces of the United States, on or over the territory of the Commonwealth shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Where the act or acts of interference or threatened interference are of such a nature as to endanger the life of the aircraft’s operator or the life of any other person, the person interfering or threatening to interfere shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony. Any person who knowingly and intentionally projects a point of light from a laser, laser gun sight, or any other device that simulates a laser at an aircraft is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
When the incident occurred, the cockpit became a “green disco ball,” Andrew Edgerton, the chief pilot for the department’s helicopter division, explained.
“I was momentarily blinded, and it was very disorienting,” he continued, noting the crew was forced to fly away from the laser and stop searching for the initial state police suspect for a while.
The man who allegedly had the laser was eventually arrested, and Edgerton called such incidents serious because it distracts pilots from their work.
The 25-year-old was arrested for interference with the operation of an aircraft. Pointing a laser at an aircraft is a federal crime, the Fox report said.
In February 2020, officials warned of the dangers when it came to such an action, according to NBC News:
“Laser attacks on police, military, civilian, and commercial aircraft have been a problem for years,” the outlet said, noting the risk was that “pilots could be blinded mid-flight, even suffer permanent eye damage.”
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