Laser teen charged with endangering jet
15.11.10
A teenager has appeared in court accused of endangering a passenger jet carrying 220 holidaymakers by shining a laser pen into its cockpit. The charges relate to incidents where a laser pen was shone at a police helicopter and the cockpit of a passenger plane.
The related incidents happened on 14 September when a Jet2 Boeing 757 plane was preparing to land at Newcastle Airport from Crete. When a police helicopter went to investigate, it too was targeted with the laser.
A 17-year-old from Pelton Fell has been charged with two counts of endangering aircraft. Appearing at Consett Magistrates’ Court on Friday, he did not enter a plea on the holiday jet charge. Suzanne Hanson, representing the boy, said he would be pleading guilty to separate charges of endangering a police helicopter by use of a laser pen, an offence said to have taken place in Pelton on the same day, and assaulting a female in Chester-le-Street on Wednesday, September 29.
The court was told that the youth accepts having a laser pen and playing with it. However, Ms Hanson said it involved a very complex area of law and that she may need to obtain flight path information to establish whether the aircraft flew over Pelton and have the pen examined to see how far it was capable of casting a beam.
John Garside, prosecuting, said he had never come across the area of law before and requested the case be adjourned so the Crown Prosecution Service could obtain the relevant flight path information. Presiding magistrate William Brown adjourned the case to Consett Magistrates’ Court on December 3 and granted the teen unconditional bail.
