Updated at 6:16 a.m., Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Coast Guard offers $1,000 reward for laser information
Associated Press
The Coast Guard is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the identity of those responsible for flashing a laser light at flight crews landing at Kalaeloa-Barbers Point.Two planes have been hit with a green laser in the past month while descending to John Rodgers Field, officials said Monday.
"Landing is a precarious operation. The crew is completely focused and procedures need to be exact," Cmdr. Chris Moss, the operations officer at Air Station Barbers Point, said in a news release.
"To be distracted by the laser is dangerous in itself, but the eye damage from the laser can be instantaneous and permanent," he said.
The 13 crew members involved in the two incidents were immediately evaluated at Tripler Army Medical Center, but no injuries were found, officials said.
The laser suspected in the incidents has a range of 9,000 feet, the Coast Guard said.
Interfering with anyone engaged in the operation of an aircraft is a federal offense, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
