A MAN flashed a laser into the cockpit of Police Scotland's helicopter six weeks before it crashed into a busy pub, a court has heard.
Grant Jones, 24, almost blinded the aircraft's crew when he flashed a bright green light into the aircraft's cockpit on October 1 last year.
Edinburgh's sheriff court heard how the pilot was forced to turn the aircraft away from the laser in order to avoid his sight being affected by the intense ray.
Colleagues sitting beside him used heat-seeking cameras to track Jones, who fled into a house in Silverknowes Crescent, Edinburgh.
They alerted officers on the ground who tracked Jones down and found a laser pen in his possession and arrested him.
The story emerged after Jones, of Silverknowes Crescent, Edinburgh, pleaded guilty to breaching the Civil Aviation Act before Sheriff Nigel Ross. He pleaded guilty to directing a light so as to dazzle or distract the pilot of an aircraft in flight.
Depute procurator fiscal Isabel Clark told the court the helicopter was helping officers search for a stolen vehicle when Jones put the crew's lives at risk.
Ms Clark added: "The pilot of the helicopter had to take immediate action in order to avoid danger to his sight or to the sight of the other people on board the helicopter."
Ms Clark told the court that the helicopter pilot had to turn his aircraft to avoid the bright glare of the laser.
The Police Scotland helicopter was based in Finnieston, Glasgow. It crashed into the Clutha Bar on Friday November 29 2013. 10 people died. Sheriff Ross deferred sentence on Jones until June 2 to await reports .
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article