More Laser Beam/Cockpit Incidents

Federal officials are investigating an incident in which a laser beam was aimed at a jet after it left Nashville International Airport bound for Chicago.

Pilots of a Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Federal agents are looking into similar incidents involving lasers and aircraft, including cases in Cleveland; Washington, D.C.; Houston; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Medford, Ore.; and Teterboro, N.J.

Laser beams can temporarily blind or disorient pilots and possibly cause a plane to crash. Federal law enforcement officials have said there is no evidence of a terrorist plot involving the laser beams.

In New Jersey, laser beams were aimed at separate aircraft flying over Morris County in the last several days.

Several people have been questioned in connection with the incidents, which involved a corporate jet and a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police helicopter.

A Parsippany, N.J., man who was playing with a laser was in the "wrong place at the wrong time," his lawyer said.

David Banach and his young daughter were using the laser on the deck of their home, illuminating neighborhood trees and houses and pointing it into the sky, lawyer Gina Mendola Longarzo told the Newark Star Ledger. The green laser beam apparently hit the helicopter, carrying a top police official.

Banach, 38, was questioned by the FBI in Newark until 4:30 a.m. New Year's Day. The lawyer said Banach, a father of three young girls and the husband of a local PTA president, works in fiber optics and uses the laser in his work.

Longarzo said the laser, while strong, is "totally legal."

On Wednesday night, a pilot preparing to land the jet at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey reported seeing three green laser beams about 11 miles from the airport.

The plane, a Cessna Citation with 13 people aboard, landed safely with no injuries reported.

On Friday, the helicopter carrying Port Authority police superintendent Samuel J. Plumeri Jr. and some detectives was hit by a beam as they surveyed the area in an attempt to pinpoint the origin of the original beams.

Federal agents are looking into recent reports of lasers being shone at aircraft in Colorado Springs, Colo., Cleveland, Washington, Houston and Medford, Ore., according to law enforcement and transportation officials, some of whom spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Federal law enforcement officials have said there is no evidence of a terrorist plot involving laser beams, though last month the FBI and the Homeland Security Department sent a memo to law enforcement agencies saying there is evidence that terrorists have explored using lasers as weapons.