Man Accused of Using Mirror to Harass Pilots

The weapon was a large mirror.

The victims were pilots at a small airport in the eastern Antelope Valley.

And the suspect is an elderly resident of the desert near Llano, who has been charged with using the four-foot-square mirror to reflect blinding sunlight at the pilots as they landed and took off at nearby Crystalaire Airport.

Alcide Chaisson, 69, was charged Friday with obstructing a flight path, a misdemeanor carrying potential penalties of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, authorities said.

“It could be very hazardous,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Cynthia Ulfig of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. “They were being blinded as they landed and took off.”

Chaisson, who reportedly told sheriff’s deputies that the noise of the small planes was preventing him from hearing a portable radio, was unavailable for comment Friday.

Ulfig said authorities considered filing more serious charges, such as assault, but declined because of Chaisson’s age and clean record. Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector Audrey Schutte said interfering with an aircraft crew member violates federal flight regulations, an offense that U.S. authorities generally refer to local law enforcement.

A gliding school and private planes use Crystalaire Airport, a small airfield without a control tower near 165th Street and Pearblossom Highway about 25 miles east of Palmdale. Pilots there appeared both irritated and amused by the assault with a mirror.

“It’s like somebody shining a mirror in your face when you’re driving a car,” said George Thomas, who flies tow planes used to launch gliders.

“Given the right circumstances, it could be dangerous. The landing was the part that bothered us most. It was definitely a real obvious distraction.”

Thomas said pilots were bothered by a bright shaft of light beaming from the desert about a mile northeast of the airport for several days before they notified the Sheriff’s Department on Dec. 16. The light came from a desert area that pilots fly over as they bank to the north on days when wind conditions require takeoffs to the east, Thomas said.

“When you flew over you could see him standing by the mirror trying to flash it at us,” Thomas said. “It seemed like he had it on a pivot or something.”

Deputies traced the source of the light to a spot near Chaisson’s trailer in the desert and found him next to the mirror, the prosecutor said. Chaisson told them he was retaliating at the pilots because he did not want them to fly over his property and was having difficulty hearing a small portable radio, authorities said.

The deputies cited but did not arrest Chaisson, and confiscated the mirror as evidence.

Thomas said he has tried to steer clear of Chaisson’s property since the incident.

“It’s not like he’s putting a bomb in our planes; it’s just something you’d rather not deal with,” he said.

But pilots said that even in the day’s after Chaisson’s citation, they saw the same man beaming flashes of light at them with a small hand mirror. This mirror was too small to cause any problems, however, they said.