TWO people are facing jail after separate incidents in which laser devices were shone at aircraft crews.

Ben Vout, 19, and Peter Allan, 22, will be sentenced at Teesside Crown Court in the new year.

Both men yesterday pleaded guilty in separate hearings to offences of endangering an aircraft.

Vout admitted shining a laser at a KLM passenger plane as it approached Durham Tees Valley Airport.

The teenager also pleaded guilty to targeting a Cleveland Police helicopter on the same night, August 17.

Allan admitted a similar offence between August 29 and September 1, involving the police helicopter.

He was told by Judge Peter Fox: “You must realise there is a high likelihood of being sent to prison.”

The judge had also told Vout that there was a very real prospect of him being sent to prison.

Judge Fox adjourned both cases until January 5, to give the Probation Service time to compile reports on each defendant.

Allan, of High Newham Road, Stockton, and Vout, of Heslop Street, in Thornaby, near Stockton, were given bail.

The court was told that Allan has no previous convictions and Vout has only motoring matters on his criminal record.

Allan pleaded guilty to recklessly acting in a manner which was likely to endanger an aircraft in Stockton.

Vout admitted two charges of recklessly or negligently acting in a manner which was likely to endanger an aircraft or any person therein.

It was said at the time that the passenger jet was lucky to avoid disaster when the laser device was shone at the pilot.

The KLM flight from Amsterdam was three-and-a-half miles from the airport when the green light was directed at the cockpit.

Although the plane and its 40 passengers touched down safely, the British Airline Pilots Association said the “extremely dangerous” behaviour could have caused a disaster.

The Cleveland Police helicopter was searching an area close to the airport, near Darlington, when it was targeted.

The crew radioed officers on the ground, and a man was arrested about an hour later.

A spokesman for the British Airline Pilots Association said the laser could have blinded both pilots, which would have put more than 40 lives at risk.

He said: “The police around our airports are vigilant, but some foolish people think it is a prank to use these laser beams.

“Had they blinded both the pilot and the co-pilot, there could have been a disaster.”