By Sami Edge
oregonlive.com
PORTLAND, Ore. — Air ambulance vendors who transport patients to Oregon Health & Science University decided not to land at the hospital on Saturday night, an OHSU spokesperson said, a precaution while a flyer circulated encouraging people to shine lasers at helicopters.
The flyer, posted anonymously last week to a blog that describes itself as an “anarchist counter-info platform” in Portland, encouraged people to play “laser tag” with helicopters on Saturday. Shining lasers at aircraft is a federal crime.
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“Every night for weeks we are forced to listen to the threatening rhythm of helicopter blades as the federal regime spies on us,” the flyer said. “The only limit power knows is our refusal to submit.”
Government helicopters have kept watch on the South Waterfront Immigration & Customs Enforcement Facility, the site of daily protests of varying sizes, since at least early October. The government choppers are audible well into Southeast Portland and have prompted a litany of noise complaints.
That facility is less than a mile, as the helicopter flies, from the OHSU helipads.
Sara Hottman, associate director of media relations for OHSU, warned Saturday that the “extremely dangerous activity” of shining lasers at helicopters could hurt patients.
Various air ambulance vendors decided not to land at the OHSU helipads on Saturday night, Hottman said. In an emergency, they would have needed to land at another airport and transport patients by vehicle, which could add up to an hour to patients’ commutes, Hottman said. That could be dangerous for trauma patients or others with urgent concerns, Hottman wrote Saturday.
On Sunday, Hottman said that worst-case scenario had not come to pass.
“Fortunately, there were no impacted patients last night,” Hottman wrote in an email.
Air ambulance vendors are expected to start landing at the hospital again on Sunday night, Hottman said.
Portland police said in an email that the agency did not receive any reports of lasers impacting aircraft on Saturday.
“Not only is it incredibly dangerous to the pilots and crew, but it’s dangerous for people on the ground,” public information officer Terri Strauss wrote in an email.
Portland police arrested one person last week after they say he shone a blue laser at a Portland Police Bureau airplane. Federal officials charged another man with a felony after they say he pointed a laser pointer at a Customs and Border Protection helicopter late last month.
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