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By Daniel Baxter |
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January 23, 2011 - Joseph Aquino, 31, Warwick, Rhode Island, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Providence on Friday to a federal charge of willfully interfering with the safe operation of an airborne commercial aircraft and endangering the safety of the 23 passengers and three crew members onboard.
Aquino illuminated the cockpit of an incoming flight on
final approach to T.F. Green Airport in Warwick with a
laser light, momentarily blinding the pilot. Aquino
entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Court Chief
Judge Mary M. Lisi.
Aquino's guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney
Peter F. Neronha; Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in
Charge of the FBI's Boston Field Office; Colonel Brendan
P. Doherty, Superintendent of the Rhode Island State
Police; and Warwick Police Chief Colonel Stephen M.
McCartney. |
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At
Friday's change of plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Luis M.
Matos told the court that on September 15, 2010, at
approximately 10:00 p.m., the control tower at
Upon
landing, the captain and co-pilot of the aircraft reported that
about three miles out, while on final approach to the airport,
the left side of the flight deck was illuminated by a very
bright green laser and that the captain was struck in the face.
The laser was then fired a second time into the cockpit of the
aircraft which at the time was below one thousand feet during a
critical time in the sequence of landing the aircraft. The laser
strike caused the captain temporary blindness.
At about
the same time, a person pulling a boat into a marina in the |
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