Northampton man charged after laser was pointed at police helicopter searching for missing person

A 49-year-old Northampton man has been charged in connection with shining a laser pen at a police helicopter as it searched for a missing person.

Sergejs Puzanovskis, 49, of Chiltern Way, was arrested by police after the pilot of a National Police Air Service helicopter reported a laser was being pointed at their aircraft as it was involved in a search over the town centre for a missing person on the evening of Wednesday, September 15.

Puzanovskis has been charged with endangering the safety of an aircraft and will appear at Northampton Magistrates' Court on October 15, 2021.

A similar incident took place in 2020 when a 44-year-old Northampton man shone a green laser at a police helicopter as they searched for a highly vulnerable missing person. Magistrates fined him £200 along with a victim surcharge and court costs of £119.

In a 2017 government report, Brian Strutton, General Secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA), said:

"When a laser is shone into a pilot’s eye, they experience a bright flash and a dazzling effect. This can distract them and leads to temporary loss of vision in the affected eye. Startling, dazzling and distracting a pilot at a critical stage of flight has the potential to cause a crash and loss of life.

"This is especially a problem for helicopters, which operate close to the ground and are sometimes single pilot operations."