A man has been arrested and charged for the recent laser beam being
aimed into a landing airplane's cockpit in New Jersey.

See:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey...6903307830.xml

After reading the article, a couple of things are of interest: The
laser is called a "Jasper Laser" and was bought from a company in
Oregon over the internet. The laser was described as cigar sized and
had a range of up to 25,000 feet.

Second, the man in my opinion seems immature. He initially blamed his
7 year old daughter for the incidents. After the initial incident in
which a landing Cessna Citation reported having the laser beamed into
their cockpit while approaching Teterboro at 3,000 feet, a police
helicopter was sent to the likely area to look around. The man, David
Banach, 38, beamed it too. Not a smart move.

The police helicopter responded by targeting the house with it's
floodlight, whereupon local police surrounded the house in large
numbers.

His lawyer denied that there was any willful misconduct, although it's
difficult for me to understand how else one might interpret his
actions. She also criticized the government for prosecuting her
client under the Patriot Act. Think about it for a moment though, who
in his or her right mind would intentionally beam something known to
cause temporary blindness at anyone, let alone the cockpit of a
landing airplane regardless the size?

US District Attorney Christopher J. Christie is quoted as saying:"We
have to send a clear message to the public that there is no harmless
mischief when it comes to airplanes, Mr. Banach's actions as alleged
in the criminal complaint put innocent lives at risk. That is illegal
and unacceptable." I agree with Mr. Christie.

The manufacturer of the laser pointer expressed regret that his
product had been used in such a manner.

Corky Scott