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US: Florida man, 52, arrested; helicopter noise bothered him so he aimed a laser at it

A 52-year-old from West Boca, Florida, was arrested July 10 2014 for aiming a laser pointer at a Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office helicopter. The pilots said they had been “disoriented” by the laser light.

James McDonald told arresting officers that the noise had been bothering him. He apologized, saying that he did not know that pointing a laser at an aircraft was illegal.

He was charged with pointing a laser light at a pilot, which is a third-degree felony in Florida.

From the Sun Sentinel

US: Camp Pendleton Marines ask public to stop lasing their noisy helicopters

Marine helicopters flying out of Camp Pendleton, California have been targeted multiple times by lasers from the nearby community of Fallbrook, in northern San Diego County. In an attempt to stop the lasings, a Marine officer discussed the incidents and the hazards of lasers with a local reporter for the North County Times, on August 7 2012.

Camp Pendleton’s Munn Field is used almost exclusively by helicopters, primarily on training missions. The chopper noise is “a backdrop to daily life in Fallbrook”, writes reporter Tom Pfingsten. He implied that perhaps someone annoyed by the noise is targeting the helicopters.

The air traffic control officer for Munn Field told Pfingsten that the lasers can potentially damage eyes and that pilots may not be able to see in the cockpit, especially when crews are wearing night vision goggles that bloom when hit by laser light.

Pfingsten wrote that “the Marines seem really worried about … losing one of their pilots to a random act of vandalism.” While the base files reports with the FAA and the Fallbrook sheriff, military police cannot be sent to find the laser source. So they are basically “asking nicely” that the public help stop whoever is lasing the military helicopters.

From the North County Times