It's against federal law and any sense of human decency to shine a laser pointer at an aircraft, but this is a big world with many wondrous a-holes in it. Last night one of them decided to pass the time by shining a laser beam into the cockpit of a charter flight coming in for a landing at Kennedy Airport. And when a police helicopter was sent to investigate, the P.O.S. shined it at the cops, too.
Sun Country Airlines Flight 8800 out of Reykjavik, Iceland was hit over Long Island as it approached JFK around 8:30 p.m. After the pilot reported the incident, Suffolk County police dispatched a helicopter to try and find the perp, and got an eyeful of laser for their troubles. Two officers and a medical technician on board were treated at a hospital and released, CBS 2 reports. It's unclear if the pilots on the chartered plane were injured.
Green lasers are particularly powerful and can cause permanent eye damage, in addition to making it difficult to fly a freaking plane. In July, a JetBlue pilot was slightly injured when some rat bastard psychotic aimed a laser pointer at the cockpit as the flight approached JFK. Here's video showing what a happens when a cockpit gets flooded with a laser beam:
No arrests were made in this incident, but CBS 2 notes that earlier this week an 18-year old was charged with pointing a laser at an officer on a Marine Bureau boat on patrol off Sayville. And earlier this month Senator Chuck Schumer demanded that the FDA regulate the sale of laser pointers, requiring them to be sold at a lower strength and to require warning labels that make it clear that directing them at aircraft is a federal offense (they already come with warnings telling you not to point them in your eye).
