Posted on 03/30/2005 5:09:10 AM PST by Calpernia
NEWARK, N.J. A Parsippany man pleads innocent to federal charges that he pointed a hand-held laser device at an aircraft and lied to investigators about it.
David W. Banach was arraigned yesterday on an indictment handed up March 23rd by a federal grand jury.
Banach is accused of pointing a hand-held laser toward a charter aircraft en route to Teterboro Airport on December 29th.
The laser beam allegedly lit up the cockpit, causing both pilots a temporary loss of night vision that briefly prevented them from seeing flight instruments and other aircraft in the vicinity.
Banach's lawyer said he was simply playing around with the hand-held device on his back deck with his young daughter, using it to look up at the stars and shining it at neighbors' houses.
ping
ping
This is the brave guy...who originally tried to pin the incident on his daughter.
Haven't heard about any more laser incidents lately. Maybe we've got our man.
< Haven't heard about any more laser incidents lately. Maybe we've got our man. >
Or the serious turn of events in this case has made it plain to the stoopid people that you really shouldn't do this.
>>> Too bad most people on a jury will buy this story because they can not understand what he did.
I will admit, I was one of them. I had quite a number of posts back and forth here on these laser incidents trying to understand.
The one place I'm still lost is if you are below the plane (this guy was on his deck, so he says), how does the beem get in the cockpit from underneath?
THAT is beyond disgusting!
Had he not started by blaming his daughter then allegedly admitting to it they would have a almost impossible case to prove.
If the plane was directly overhead you couldn't shine it in. But if the plan was far away and flying low the angle he'd have to shine the light would be low enough that I suspect you could easily shine it into the cockpit.
If the aircraft is overhead or heading away, it can't be done.
But, if you can see the windshield, you can shine it in. It's just like pointing a flashlight but its WAY brighter. This just wasn't a passing flash either, he had to have followed the aircraft with the laser for a few seconds.
Does the plane windshield bend and broaden the beam?
"All I wanted was some sharks with frikin' laser beams attached to their heads!"
You would think it would.
When news of this came out, the pilot said the cabin was lit up. I think of a laser a single point like a dot. Then again I don't play with bit lasers, just the little pen ones that you can annoy cats with.
Or who is taking a rap for his daughter once he saw how serious it was getting.
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