Teen in court over laser incidents
15.11.10
A teenager appeared in court on Friday accused of endangering a passenger jet carrying 220 passengers by shining a laser pen into its cockpit. The charges relate to an incidents where a laser pen was shone at the cockpit of a passenger plane and later at a police helicopter.
The incidents happened on September 14 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, he did not enter a plea on the holiday jet charge. His defence council, Suzanne Hanson, said he would be pleading guilty to 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.
The court was told that the youth accepts having a laser pen and playing with it. However, Ms Hanson said it involved a complex area of law and that she would 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, requested the case be adjourned so the Crown Prosecution Service could obtain the relevant flight path information. Magistrate William Brown adjourned the case to Consett Magistrates’ Court on December 3 and granted the teen unconditional bail.
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