Photo: 123RF
A man has been charged with endangering transportation afterward shining a laser on the Otago rescue helicopter in the sky four minutes on Monday evening.
Otago Helicopters owner and pilot Graeme Gale says they were transporting a seriously ill patient to Christchurch and returning when the crew was struck by a laser off the coast of Oamaru.
“Obviously we can see from a bird’s eye view where that laser is coming from and we were able to start tracking where the laser came from, identify where the property came from and call the police at the same time. time and send them to exactly where it was and (they) arrested the man.”
Shining a laser at a helicopter was “extremely dangerous” and Gale said he had no tolerance for it.
He has instructed all his pilots to try to track where a laser is coming from if they are placed in the same position.
‘I have no sympathy whatsoever… I want it to be dealt with in the strongest possible way.
“They need to understand that we’re not really flying around in the middle of the night for fun, we’re on life saving missions, protecting lives and if we get a clown flying at us with a laser you could get hit in the eye and end up with temporary blindness or permanent blindness.
“Now, that’s not good if you’re flying a helicopter and we only have one pilot on board, then it’s going to be catastrophic. You might lose the helicopter, kill the pilot, kill some medics and a doctor.” and a nurse.”