A TEENAGER was behind bars last night for using a laser to dazzle the pilot of a passenger jet as it came in to land at a North-East airport.

Following the attack on the KLM airliner, 19-year-old Ben Vout also targeted a Cleveland Police helicopter that was searching for him.

A court heard that the copilot of the KLM plane, which was preparing to land at Durham Tees Valley Airport with 40 passengers on board, was temporarily blinded by the green beam.

If he had been in charge of landing the flight from Amsterdam it could have been fatal, prosecutor Kate Dodds told Teesside Crown Court.

Vout, who had been drinking, told police he was amazed by the power of the pen, which he bought on the internet auction site eBay for £10.

Peter Wishlade, defending, told Teesside Crown Court it was astonishing that the penshaped lasers were so easily available when they were a threat to aircaft safety.

Vout of Heslop Street, Thornaby-on-Tees, was sent to a young offenders’ institution for four months after he pleaded guilty to two charges of endangering the safety of an aircraft on August 17 last year.

Vout originally told police, who traced him to a party at a house in Stockton-on-Tees, that the laser was not his.

He explained to them: "We were larking about with it in the sky, that's when it hit the helicopter."

The Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Peter Fox QC told Vout:"This was dangerously stupid.

"You and all the other lads have got to realise that this has been dangerously stupid, and it has got to stop."

Peter Allan, 22, of High Newham Road, Stockton, who admitted a similar laser attack on the police helicopter over Middlesbrough a fortnight later, was given a three months jail sentence suspended for two years. He was also ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work.

Allan said he bought his pen on eBay for £10 to use on forest camping trips. He aimed it at the helicopter India 35 when it was flying over Ian Ramsey School in Middlesbrough.

Miss Dodds said that the pilot, Geoffrey Sutcliffe, had had to change direction because he was concerned that there could be a direct strike.

She added:"He had to climb higher and avoid looking downwards. He could only fly by instruments for a few momentsl.

"The light lasted for ten to 15 seconds."

Allan was traced to near a bus shelter on Fairfield Road, and he initially expressed surprise when he was told that he had endangered an aircraft. He said he did not mean to shine it at the helicopter.

Miss Dodds added: "He said that he obtained it from eBay for £10, and he added that he could have bought it from anywhere in Middlesbrough.”

Mr Wishlade said: "It is quite beyond comprehension that one could buy something from eBay and shops for £10 that could endanger an aircraft. He had abandoned a camping trip and went into a pub. He was showing his friend the torch and shining it, and his friend said 'You have just hit that helicopter'.

"He realised he had hit the helicopter and it astonished him. He says that he got it to light up the forest where he camps. He certainly did not have it to direct it at aircraft."

Judge Fox told Allan that he would have gone to prison if the pilot had been dazzled or if the laser had been played on the helicopter for more than a few seconds.