David Banach of Parsippany, N.J., leaves federal court in Newark, N.J., Jan. 4, 2005. Banach who is accused of pointing a laser at an airplane, temporarily blinding the pilot and co-pilot, was indicted Wednesday, March 23, 2005, under an anti-terror law. Banach also was accused of lying to the FBI about the Dec. 29 incident, in which a small passenger jet's windshield and cabin were hit three times by a green laser as the plane readied to land at Teterboro Airport.
Assuming for one minute that he wasn't pointing the laser at planes intentionally, he should be publicly flogged for being a dumb a$$.
"I think it's an absolute abuse of prosecutorial discretion to charge my client under the Patriot Act for non-purposeful conduct," she said.
And if the plane had lost control and crashed and killed all on the plane and more on the plane, would you still use the "non=purposeful" conduct defense?
I smell an 'ACLU' supporter/dupe.
Where do these people get these items? Are they high-tech or simply the laser pointers you find in classrooms or lectures?
Can someone please tell me the difference between "green laser pointers" and the red one's we commonly use at work?
Are they different? Is there a legitmate reason to use a green one?
Ooooo, the hard-timers are going to love this guy.
Dumb, real dumb.
Since when do pilots look at the ground when flying? How can they be blinded when they cannot even see over the nose of the plane until they are nearly touching down? The angles seem to be all wrong for a laser on the ground to affect anyone on an airplance, except in the most narrow of circumstances.
19 months, 5 years probation.