PHOENIX — A Phoenix man is behind bars Friday morning after he allegedly pointed a green laser at commercial airplanes and a police helicopter Thursday night, city police said.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the crew of a passenger plane reported that they were being illuminated by a laser around 8:45 p.m.
A police helicopter was called to the area and a laser was pointed at them as well, officers said. The officers in the helicopter were able to get an address of where the laser came from and patrol units on the ground then responded to the area of 17th and Indianola avenues.
Officers found three people in a driveway when they arrived. Two of the people told police the other person, 35-year-old William Hill, was known to have a lot of "gadgets" and usually used a laser pointer to play with cats.
Hill initially told police he did not have a laser but was detained and read his Miranda rights. That's when he told police he had a purple laser light he was last using during the day. He then told police he had a green laser light that he had been using in the backyard and pointed it at the sky to "see how powerful it was," court documents said.
Hill denied pointing the laser at aircraft on purpose, documents said.
Hill was arrested and booked into the Maricopa County jail on two counts of aiming a laser pointer at an occupied aircraft, which is a felony.
The FAA shared the following statement about the severity of laser strikes:
"Pilots reported 9,500 laser strikes to the FAA in 2022. Two hundred and seventy-eight pilots have reported an injury from a laser strike to the FAA since 2010. People who shine lasers at aircraft face FAA fines of up to $11,000 per violation and up to $30,800 for multiple laser incidents. The FAA issued $120,000 in fines for laser strikes in 2021."
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