A Utah National Guard flight crew followed a car whose occupants reportedly were shining a laser at them as the soldiers trained Monday night in the mountains near Tooele.
The UH-72 Lakota helicopter was flying near Eagle Mountain when its crew noticed someone was flashing it with a laser, said Evan Ahlborn, a National Guard chief warrant officer three.
When someone shines a laser at an aircraft — which has happened to Utah National Guard aircraft three or four times over the past few years — it can temporarily blind the pilot, Ahlborn said.
The Federal Aviation Administration received 3,894 reports of laser incidents in 2014, down from 3,960 the year before, according to the most recent available data.