This is what the pilot sees.
Posted on 01/05/2023 2:03:49 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A Florida man is under arrest for shining a laser into the cockpit of a police helicopter which temporarily blinded the pilot forcing him to hand the controls to another officer.
The Brevard County Sheriff's Office pilot was temporarily blinded by a laser that was flashed into the cockpit multiple times as the officers assisted the Palm Bay Police Department in the search for a man who attacked his roommate, WOFL-TV reported.
Police later determined where the laser was coming from and arrested 33-year-old Dean Gordon Beolet, who was not involved in the crime the helicopter had been tracking, and charged him with one count of felony misuse of a laser light.
"It can be very dangerous," Tod Goodyear, a Brevard County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, said. "It could cause a crash, it can cause injuries to the pilot's eyes. It's something that is talked about, but I don't think is talked about enough. It's not a prank, it's something that could turn into a deadly situation."
Police say Beolet admitted to intentionally flashing the laser that caused the pilot, Deputy Brandon McIntyre, to temporarily lose his sight and hand the controls to another officer.
"The first thing you try to do is avert your eyes, but it's so quick, it immediately goes into the back of your eye and literally burns the back of your eye. It can cause permanent damage," said Shem Malmquist, an airline pilot and instructor, told WOFL-TV.
"You would think by now criminals in Brevard County would understand the concept of ‘Mess Around And Find Out’ but I guess some of them just need to find out the hard way!!," the department posted on Facebook.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
20 years in the slammer should teach him.
Always amazed they are able to identify the location of these morons. Maybe there is video they can analyze afterward.
He’s a real Florida Man
Living in his Florida land
Thinking all his Florida thoughts
Oh gigity
He doesn’t really think things through
Knows not what he yet may do
Isn’t he a bit like a Biden?
Florida Man please listen
You give a bad rep
To the rest of your vicinage
Florida Man
Just don’t do it
We plead again and again!
Laser seeking hellfire missiles should be standard equipment on police helicopters. Just a suggestion….
Even if there are no actual lasers, put the word out they are there and ask “Do ya feel lucky, punk?”
33-year-old
Proof some age but never mature.
It was Q.
Q did it.
I wouldn’t even shine a plain ol flashlight at aircraft
Just asking for trouble or a patrol to check you out
Hmm…. Maybe not.
This is what the pilot sees.
What a stupid, stupid crime. No up side and all down side.
People got no brains at all. Back in the 80s I was in college and in one physics lab we were given some plug in lasers. Immediately a couple of morons turned theirs on and started waving them around the lab. I made them shut them off and then told them they weren’t toys and they could effing blind someone. Effing idiots. They aren’t flashlights.
Was my immediate thought as well!
Of course my suggestion was in jest. Sort of.
He finally got his picture in the ‘paper’!
Doesn’t look like the brightest bulb.
And his ears are problematic.
Always amazed they are able to identify the location of these morons. Maybe there is video they can analyze afterward.
```````````````````````````````````````````````
It happens at MLB games, I don’t watch NFL or NBA but it probably happens there too and the perp never seems to get caught.
The video showed the street map overlay and the address all around it. They knew right where it was coming from.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.