3 Pilots Injured at LaGuardia by Guy With Laser Pointer

Suspect charged with shining beam at aircraft
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 10, 2015 12:43 PM CDT
3 Pilots Injured at LaGuardia by Guy With Laser Pointer
Police confiscated this laser from the suspect's residence.   (NYPD)

A Bronx man who lives about 10 miles from LaGuardia whiled away the hours last night by pointing a laser beam at aircraft landing and taking off at the airport, police say. End result: three pilots with injuries to their eyes, along with a slew of serious charges for the suspect, identified as 36-year-old Frank Egan, reports NBC News. Two police officers in one helicopter were treated and released for their eye injuries, as was the pilot of an Air Canada commercial flight. A Delta jet and a smaller aircraft also got hit by the beam, reports the New York Daily News.

Egan got arrested after the NYPD aviation unit spotted the beam coming from a window in his residence. After the suspect's mother answered the door and let officers inside, they found the laser—a $50 model he bought at a specialty shop—on top of the refrigerator. "He gave it right up and that was it," a police official tells the Daily News. As for the charges: assault on a police officer, felony assault, menacing a police officer, reckless endangerment, and criminal possession of a weapon. (More LaGuardia Airport stories.)

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