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The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas convicted a resident, George Lopez, of knowingly aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft.
On February 12, Lopez was indicted for allegedly aiming a laser pointer at a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter. He pled guilty on Aug. 1. The investigation is still ongoing with the Texas Department of Public Safety working with DOT-OIG.
This has not been the first arrest over a laser attack in 2025. Earlier this year, another Texas resident, Jordan Dwaynel Jackson, was accused of pointing a laser pointer at two separate aircraft on Nov. 11, 2021. Jackson was sentenced to 15 months of incarceration, 12 months of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal ordered that Jackson spend half of his sentence in federal prison, while the other half can be served concurrently with an unrelated 18-year sentence.
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In May, the FBI offered a reward of up to $10,000 for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved with laser incidents on aircraft in Washington State. The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and the Spokane International Airport (GEG) have reported a drastic increase in laser strikes. It is believed that multiple people were involved and that the strikes at the separate airports were unrelated.A laser can temporarily blind and incapacitate pilots while flying. The danger this brings makes pointing a laser at any aircraft a federal crime. Despite this, laser strikes in the U.S. have been in over 10,000 since 2023. That year, 13,304 strikes were reported to the FAA, and 2024 saw 12,840 laser strikes. This year, 5,913 have been reported to the FAA.