Russian police have arrested two men on suspicion of blinding a pilot with a laser pen as he was landing a plane carrying 115 passengers at an airport in the southern Russian town of Gelendzhik.
No one was hurt in Tuesday evening’s incident and the plane landed safely.
“Two young men were arrested after it was reported that somebody was blinding plane pilots with a laser,” Krasnodar region police spokesman Igor Zhelyabin told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
The detainees said they were simply “testing” the powerful laser, Zhelyabin added.
There have been 30 such incidents across Russia this year. A draft bill stipulating long jail terms for people who attempt to blind pilots has recently been introduced in the lower house of the Russian Parliament, the State Duma.