Laser debacle ends with man in prison

A 37-year-old Californian man was sentenced to two-and-a half-years in prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of pointing a laser beam at two arriving Boeing aircrafts last year.

In May 2008, Dana Christian Welch allegedly shone a handheld laser at a United Airlines jet, carrying more than 180 people, and at an Alaska Airlines plane, with more than 80 people on board, as they landed at Santa Ana's John Wayne Airport.

According to a US Justice Department statement a pilot in the United aircraft suffered "flash blindness" after being hit in the eye by a green laser beam.

AFP reported one of the Alaska Airlines pilots had to duck under a glare shield to avoid the beam which was shining into the cockpit.

U.S. authorities said Welch would also have to serve years of supervised release after completing his prison term.