MINNEAPOLIS - A federal judge in Wisconsin sentenced a Minnesota man on Friday to two years in prison for aiming a laser at a Delta Air Lines jet in 2021, an act that prosecutors said disrupted the pilots' efforts to land and put passengers in "incredible danger," CBS News reports. Continue reading original article.
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
11 April 2023 - According to the CBS News report, laser strikes on aircraft hit record levels in the calendar year of 2021. Pilots recorded nearly 10,000 incidents in 2021, which was a 41% increase over 2020 reports. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued $120,000 in fines in 2021. The perpetrator of the Delta laser incident received two years in prison. Prosecutors could have sought up to five years incarceration.
"The laser strikes caused a major distraction in the cockpit as they were not able to look at their iPads to brief the new approach," prosecutors said in a statement. "The first officer did not suffer any disruption to his vision, but the captain said that vision in his right eye was affected for several hours after this event."
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Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics
