A POLICE airman hoped the sentence handed to a teenager who turned a laser pen on his helicopter after targeting an airliner would act as a deterrent to others.

Ben Philip Vout was sentenced to four months in a young offenders' institution after he targeted a KLM flight coming in to land with 40 passengers at Durham Tees Valley Airport last August.

He also shone the device at the police helicopter sent to investigate.

The 19-year-old from Heslop Street in Thornaby was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court after earlier pleading guilty to two charges of endangering the safety of an aircraft.

Police spotter PC Andy Currie, who was aboard the helicopter, said: “It is something that the police pilots are used to but doing it to an airliner could have had catastrophic effects. This sentence shows people the severity of the offence, people could easily have lost their lives.

“We regularly face people shining really strong lamps at us but this was even worse because it can cause temporary blindness to the pilot. It was an extremely reckless act that could have had tragic consequences.

“Let’s hope that people get the message, that it is potentially fatal to shine these lasers into the eyes of a pilot.”

The chief pilot of the North East Air Support Unit, based at Durham Tees Valley Airport, Captain Adey Hardwick said: “I am delighted with the sentence, the judge summed it up perfectly – it was dangerously stupid.

“In a helicopter there is only one pilot and we are often stuck between the ground and jets coming into land at the airport – we have nowhere to go. It is extremely dangerous for one of our pilots to be blinded – it could have been devastating.

“Also, what people don’t often realise is that any cracks, in the plastic windows surrounding the pilot, dissipates the beam and sends it shooting across his vision like a disco light.

“This happens to our pilots all of the time and is becoming increasingly regular as lasers become easier and easier to get hold of.

It is not something new but it is something that needs stamping out and this sentence will hopefully help do that.”