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Lasers shone at landing aircraft at Exeter and Newquay | Lasers shone at landing aircraft at Exeter and Newquay |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Two passenger planes - one over Exeter, Devon, and one at Newquay, Cornwall - had laser beams shone into their cockpits on Friday night. | Two passenger planes - one over Exeter, Devon, and one at Newquay, Cornwall - had laser beams shone into their cockpits on Friday night. |
A Thomson Airbus from Corfu was struck by a beam while it was coming in to land at Exeter at about 20:00 BST. | |
A Flybe plane from Gatwick was hit at Newquay during a descent at 21:17. | |
Each aircraft had more than 60 people on board. They landed safely but the pilots could have been blinded, police said. | |
Police said the aircraft at Exeter was on final approach, low to the ground and over the city. | |
'Crashed aircraft' | |
The airport said it was about three miles (4.8km) out from the runway. | |
The beam was reported as coming from a sports ground in the Whipton area, on the other side of the M5 motorway from the airport. | The beam was reported as coming from a sports ground in the Whipton area, on the other side of the M5 motorway from the airport. |
The police helicopter was scrambled to find the source of the beam. | |
Ch Insp Brendan Brookshaw, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: "Potentially we could have been talking about a crashed aircraft. | Ch Insp Brendan Brookshaw, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: "Potentially we could have been talking about a crashed aircraft. |
"We don't want this develop into a pattern of behaviour." | "We don't want this develop into a pattern of behaviour." |
Police treated such incidents as a possible prelude to a terrorist attack, he added. | |
He said: "Obviously a laser [striking an aircraft] could be a prelude to a missile attack. | |
"We look at it with that level of seriousness." | |
People shining lasers at aircraft faced up to five years in prison under Civil Aviation Act, he said. |