Laser flashed at KOMO's Air4 news chopper during protest

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

SEATTLE - Someone flashed a laser at KOMO's Air4 news helicopter as it hovered over a protest on Capitol Hill on Saturday night, forcing the chopper to return to its base and land.

The video feed from the chopper went black as the laser was fired

The crew aboard the helicopter was believed to be OK after the incident, but did not return to the protest.

Pointing a laser at an aircraft is not only dangerous, it's illegal.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/laser-flashed-at-komo-s-air4-news-chopper-during-protest/ar-BB15a2YZ?ocid=hplocalnews

Some idiot. Just what we need a copter crash in a populated area.

[DarthDem]

1. Imbeciles

Someone could have been seriously hurt.

[VarryOn]

2. Hopefully, they can find the perp...

We need these protests. I believe they can affect real change. But, we dont need those trying to turn them violent. One of these protest turning into a full-blown, massive riot with numerous fatalities could destroy this movement. We are on the verge of something huge and positive!

[SheltieLover]

3. Speaking rhetorically...

I am wondering who would have $$$ for such a strong laser? Doubt it's a kitty toy.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. I worked at a company that used them...

... to manufacture measuring devices.

The faulty lasers that didn't have enough beam focus would get tossed out, or taken home by any employee who wanted them.

I took one of them home and could BRIGHTLY radiate a stop sign that was about half a mile away.

They weren't even high-end lasers, really, but they were a lot stronger than laser pointers.

No, I never pointed it toward a plane.

Edit: I mostly pointed it at a stereo speaker for a "light show" on my walls.

[SheltieLover]

5. Haha

Love the light show... 😁👍

[stopdiggin]

6. to summarize, not that hard to obtain

and even a lot of the cheapo stuff has some pretty good (make that effective) capacity.