Vermont State Police are investigating a report of a “laser strike” on a plane near the Shelburne airport.
The incident occurred Wednesday afternoon, when a pilot reported being targeted by a laser pointer as they were flying in Charlotte about a mile south of Shelburne Air Park Road.
The strike was then reported to the Burlington Airport, as per protocol, which passed the information along to the Williston Barracks to investigate.
Andrew Underwood, the Vermont State Police officer who responded to the incident, said his investigation of the area found little information, noting that it is a sparsely populated part of Shelburne.
“We checked those areas for anything suspicious, but didn’t find anything,” he said.
Underwood said the VSP didn’t receive specifics on the plane, but based on the size of the airport, said it was likely a fairly small aircraft.
“It was a grass runway so it couldn’t have been very big plane,” Underwood said.
When pointed into the sky, small laser pointers can distract pilots or cause temporary flash blindness. Since the planes targeted are usually close to the ground, the pilots are typically in the most critical phases of a flight (landing or takeoff), which makes the strike more dangerous.
Aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft is a federal crime punishable by up to $250,000 in fines and five years imprisonment.
“It’s not terribly common, but when it happens, it’s very alarming for those pilots,” Underwood said.
Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘Laser strike’ reported on Shelburne-bound plane.