New attempt to blind Russian pilot with laser

Unidentified individuals tried to blind a Russian pilot with a laser as he was landing a plane at a Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport in a third incident this month, Russia's aviation agency said on Thursday. The perpetrators tried to blind the pilot of a Sibir Airlines plane bound from St. Petersburg to Moscow as it was preparing to land at the airport shortly before midnight on Wednesday. The plane landed successfully, the agency said. "Preliminary information shows that the plane was targeted by a laser from a distance of five-six kilometers from the village of Shakhovo," the source said. "The pilots were not blinded because the laser beam hit the body of the plane." This was one of 30 similar incidents since early this year in Russia, mostly at Moscow airports. In June, aviation authorities expressed concern over the increasing number of laser-related attempts targeting aircraft. In another incident on June 20 in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia someone tried to blind the crew of a police helicopter while it was landing.