DENVER (AP) -- The FBI said Friday it was investigating the possibility that a United Airlines flight that left Denver the previous night was targeted with a laser beam.
The pilot of Flight 423, a Boeing 777 that took off from Denver International Airport on Thursday evening and landed safely in San Francisco, reported seeing a green light in the cockpit that he thought could have been a laser, FBI spokesman Carl Schlaff said.
Under a Federal Aviation Administration policy, the pilot was required to report the sighting to the control tower.
Schlaff said the pilot thought the beam might have come from a new residential development at the old Stapleton International Airport site in northern Denver. Investigators, however, were unable to determine the exact location, he said.
Since November, several dozen similar incidents have been reported around the country, including several in Colorado. A Flight for Life helicopter was targeted in Summit County late last week, and local prosecutors were considering charges against a 22-year-old Edwardsville, Ill., man, District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said Thursday.
The federal government has warned that terrorists might use lasers to blind pilots, and an FAA study concluded lasers could cause a crash. Authorities have said no links to terrorism were found in any of the rash of such incidents.
