VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — A Virginia woman has been convicted of intentionally pointing a homemade strobe light at a Navy aircraft.
Lou Ella Moore, 64, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor interference with aircraft operation, WAVY-TV reported Thursday. She was sentenced to 180 days, all suspended, and 50 hours of community service, the station said, citing the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.
Moore was aiming the strobe lights at Naval Air Station Oceana aircraft and attempting to direct them as they were conducting night training operations near an auxiliary landing field in Chesapeake this winter, Virginia Beach Police and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service said at the time.
Air Station Oceana uses the rural landing field near Virginia Beach for fighter pilots to simulate landing on an aircraft carrier, The Virginian-Pilot reported at the time.
“NCIS personnel observed Lou Moore using a homemade device made of multiple lights fastened to a garden rake, and pointing it at planes overhead,” NCIS spokesman Jeff Houston wrote in an email to the newspaper in March.
Such lights can cause pilots to become disoriented.
