Laser strike fine labelled an ‘insult’ to police, pilots, and the public

Saturday, 13 June 2026

Dean Charles Smith stands in the dock at Timaru District Court on Wednesday as he is sentenced on two charges of using a laser on a tourist biplane.

The pilot flying the plane twice hit by laser strikes over Twizel has been left frustrated at the sentence the perpetrator has received.

“For everyone concerned, except the offender, it’s very disappointing,” Chris Rudge told The Timaru Herald on Thursday, a day after Dean Charles Smith was fined $9750 in the Timaru District Court for the incidents in January 2026.

In April, Smith admitted two charges of shining a powerful hand-held laser at a Grumman Ag-Cat biplane “in a manner that caused unnecessary danger” to the pilot, on January 4 and January 18.

Red Cat Biplane Flights owner, Chris Rudge, is frustrated with the sentence of man who twice shone a powerful hand-held laser at one of his commercial flights near Twizel. (File photo)

The offences carried a maximum sentence of five years’ jail and a $300,000 fine.

Rudge said both flights “were air transport operations” with his company having the same certification as Air New Zealand.

“Effectively, I am an airline.”

Judge Campbell Savage said on Wednesday that he was “not prepared to infer exactly” what Smith’s intent was when he purchased and imported the laser.

“It may be to have pointed at the drones, but ultimately you’re here today because you pointed it at a commercial aircraft on two separate occasions.”

Rudge, who owned the Grumman Ag-Cat biplane he was flying as part of his business Red Cat Biplane Flights from the Pukaki Airport, was carrying two passengers on each occasion, and said such incidents had never happened to him before in his 42-year flying career.

The modified laser used by Dean Charles Smith on a tourist biplane being flown near Twizel in January 2026.

“The sentence handed down yesterday was a joke, particularly given what happened was at the top end of offending.”

Rudge said the fine, which worked out to be less than $5000 per offence, was “an insult to New Zealand pilots getting hit by lasers on a regular basis”.

A still shot of one of the videos taken by Chris Rudge of the laser strikes on his aircraft in the Twizel area.

“It’s also an insult to the NZ Police, and the CAA [Civil Aviation Authority] who pushed hard for a custodial sentence in proportion to how this is viewed overseas.”

Rudge said, in comparison, a six-month to two-year sentence would be expected in Australia or the UK.

“Worst of all, it’s an insult to the travelling public who, by necessity, expect the skies to be safe.

“An offence that directly targets pilots is the last thing they need.

“A relatively small fine hardly acts as a deterrent to others … it does not send a very clear message to other people.”

Chris Rudge flies one of his two Grumman Ag-Cat biplanes that is part of his Red Cat Biplane Flights that operates from the Pukaki Airport. (File photo)

Rudge said he had been contacted by other pilots in the industry who were disappointed with the sentence.

“People are saying that he should have gone to jail, he should go to jail, and he should have been be charged with assault.

“You know, that is basically the feeling from pilots.”

Rudge said there was little doubt to him that the laser was an offensive weapon, saying it had been modified, and was 7000 times the limit allowed to be imported into NZ.

He said he was not planning to change the way he operated.

“We have legal rights to operate at certain heights in certain places and why should we [have to change]. What do we do, no longer fly over cities?

“I mean, you’ve got to be practical about it.

“You can’t really basically stop that sort of thing happening. If somebody wants to do it, they’re going to do it.

“The only thing I’m worried about is, clearly, if it happened again…”

Rudge said the bottom line for the industry was that the fine was “just so insulting to the intelligence of the pilots in New Zealand”.