The FBI has launched a public awareness campaign to educate the public on the dangers and consequences of pointing a laser at an aircraft.
The crime is a federal felony and carries heavy penalties.
What looks like a tight beam of light on the ground will expands when the light is refracted on the aircraft--temporarily blinding the pilot.
"Think about driving your car and having temporary blindness. If there's traffic coming the other direction, you can't see what lane you're in. Compound that by being up in the air, having to rely on the instruments that you can no longer see," says Sgt. Jeff Andriese, an aerial supervisor with the California Highway Patrol.
On March 10, Sergio Patrick Rodriguez, 26, of Clovis, was sentence to 14 years in prison for aiming a laser at a Fresno Police helicopter in 2012.
Pilot Ken Schneider with the Fresno Police Department was flying Air One, investigating reports of a laser striking an emergency transport helicopter for Children's Hospital. He says his helicopter was hit with the same laser.
"This was an intentional attack with the laser specifically targeted of our helicopter and the air crew," Schneider says.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Escobar helped prosecute this case. She says the punishment fit the crime.
"He had a history of outstanding warrants, gang affiliation, he had a history of violence," Escobar says.
While the green laser used in this attack was 13 times more powerful than what's permissible for hand-held laser devices, all lasers come labeled with warnings that it is against the law to point a laser at an aircraft.
"You're not only making the pilots the victims, but you're making everybody else on the aircraft victims as well," says Ryan Burk, a pilot with the Fresno County Sheriff's Office. "You're also making the victims of anybody else in the sky and the people on the ground."
Rodriguez's girlfriend, Jennifer Lorraine Coleman, 23, was also convicted in this case. Coleman will be sentenced May 12. She faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The FBI is offering a reward of $10,000 for laser pointing reports that lead to an arrest.