A man who was arrested in California for shining a laser pen at a police helicopter has been sentenced to one year and nine months in jail. Barry Lee Bowser was previously convicted during a two-day trial after he admitted to firing the laser at an aircraft earlier in the year and will now spend 21 months behind bars.
The court heard how officers saw a laser coming from a building in Central California and investigated after “the pilot experienced flash blindness and eye discomfort and pain that lasted several hours.” According to Bowser, he was simply trying to test out the device to see if it worked after he had inserted new batteries into it.
The danger posed by laser pens to aircraft is so great that prosecutors have been pushing for harsh sentences from judges in order to create a serious deterrent. Several people around the United States have been given jail terms of several years, including one man who was sentenced to 14 years behind bars for firing a laser at two different aircraft.
However, successful appeals have generally meant that those prison terms were seen as excessive and reduced. Police also have trouble locating those using laser pens against airplanes and passenger jets as it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact location that the laser is coming from, although with helicopters it is much easier as they are lower to the ground and travel at slower speeds.
