SALINA, New York (WWNY) – A 16-year-old was taken into custody after a New York State Police helicopter crew reported a green laser illuminating the aircraft\u2019s interior. Officials say it happened near Buckley Road in the town of Salina on July 17, 2026, at approximately 11:32 p.m.<\/p>\n
How troopers located the suspect<\/p>\n
The pilot used the aircraft\u2019s thermal imaging system to locate a person beneath an overhang near a picnic table who was allegedly directing the laser at the aircraft. The pilot relayed the location to troopers assigned to ground patrols for the Syracuse Nationals After Hours event.<\/p>\n
Troopers located the teen and took them into custody without incident. A laser-equipped device was recovered and secured as evidence.<\/p>\n
Charges and court appearance<\/p>\n
The teen was charged with Directing a Laser at an Aircraft in the First Degree. The 16-year-old was issued an appearance ticket for Onondaga County Youth Part Court and released to a parent.<\/p>\n
The investigation is being handled by the State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation at State Police North Syracuse.<\/p>\n
State Police warning to the public<\/p>\n
The New York State Police said pointing a laser at an aircraft is dangerous and illegal. A laser can temporarily blind or disorient a pilot, impair night vision and jeopardize the safety of the flight crew, passengers and people on the ground.<\/p>\n
State Police remind you that you should never point a laser at an aircraft or toward the sky when an aircraft is present.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WWNY. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALINA, New York (WWNY) – A 16-year-old was taken into custody after a New York State Police helicopter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[48119,114108,46252,9,11,10,49,51,50,747,3905,114107,4805,112230,12413,3904],"class_list":["post-300672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-aircraft","tag-directing-a-laser-at-an-aircraft","tag-helicopter","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-new-york-state-police","tag-nysp","tag-onondaga-county-youth-part-court","tag-salina","tag-syracuse-nationals","tag-teen","tag-wwny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}