The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been investigating a “dramatic increase” in harmful laser strikes at a number of Washington state airports, authorities mentioned.
Pilots touchdown at Seattle-Tacoma and Spokane Worldwide Airport have skilled a surge of allusive sci-fi inexperienced lasers shining into their cockpits in latest months, together with the latest arrest of a person who allegedly tried the strikes on three separate plane, Spokane County mentioned in a press launch Wednesday.
A forty five-year-old man was arrested final Friday for finishing up three completely different laser assaults on completely different plane, together with on a Regional Air Assist Unit helicopter, close to the Spokane airport, the county introduced.
The helicopter observed the inexperienced laser hitting its cockpit and allegedly found Rusty Flett hiding behind an influence pole, officers mentioned.
Flett might now face a number of Washington State felony fees of illegal discharge of a laser within the first diploma or comparable federal felony fees for the alleged shenanigans, the county mentioned.
Nobody was damage within the incident, in line with the discharge.
Officers warn that the lasers might intervene with a airplane’s touchdown and pose a danger of harm to flight crew, passengers, and pilots.
There have been 43 laser incidents in March alone in Washington, and 106 within the state in 2025 to date, The Road reported.
In all of 2024, there have been 383 incidents in Washington, the outlet mentioned.
Investigators imagine a number of persons are accountable for the laser blasts, and don’t see the situations on the two separate airports to be associated, the county added.
The FBI is working with a number of state and native businesses to research the experiences within the Seattle and Spokane areas, officers mentioned.
Shining a laser pointer at an plane is a federal offense. If convicted, an individual might be sentenced to 5 years in jail and face a $250,000 high-quality.
