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Youth held for aiming laser beam at copter

ABU DHABI —A 21-year-old national was briefly detained by the police for allegedly flashing a laser beam from a pen-torch at an airborne helicopter, an act that the authorities felt had endangered the aircraft security as well as the civilian population on the ground.

The crew of the helicopter, which was on an official mission, called the Operations Room of the Abu Dhabi Police complaining of a laser light being flashed at it from a house below.

Immediately, a number of police and CID personnel reached the area pinpointed by the helicopter crew and took the suspect into custody, according to Major Juma Salem Al Ka’abi, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department.

The youth said he had bought the laser pen-torch from an Asian vendor without realising the danger of using it. He also told the police that he and his brothers had been flashing the laser beam at helicopters quite often.

The youth, it is believed, was let off after he signed an undertaking to refrain from such acts.

Major Al Ka’abi has urged the public not to play around with laser pen-torches, and stressed that flashing laser beams at people and private property is a punishable offence.