A 45-year-old man denied charges of endangering the safety of four commercial planes when he appeared at Maidstone Crown Court today.

Adrian Carpenter, of Halfway Road, Halfway, is alleged to have aimed a laser pen as the aircraft passed over the Island on January 30.

They were three British Airways’ planes travelling between Munich and Heathrow, Amsterdam and Gatwick and Vienna and Heathrow and a Thomson plane between Salzburg and Gatwick.

Judge Philip Statman described it as “a very serious case”.

Carpenter also denied assaulting a woman police officer on January 23.

He will return to court on March 1 next year. A trial date was set for May 30.

Bail was continued, conditional on not being in possession of a device capable of projecting beams of light.