An astronomer yesterday admitted accidentally focusing a laser beam on an Air Malta plane while pointing out constellations to his young nephew.

David Camilleri, 48, from Rabat, who is pleading not guilty to putting the airliner in danger, said that although the laser did hit the plane’s tail it was not a malicious act.

The pilots operating flight KM329 from Frankfurt reported to the police on June 16 that a laser beam had been directed at the cockpit from Independence Avenue, Mosta.

Mr Camilleri said he did not see the plane coming and it flew right across the beam while he was showing his seven-year-old nephew stars from the roof of his brother’s house in Mosta.

He said he bought the €10 laser from eBay and questioned the pilots’ allegations that the laser hit the cockpit and temporarily dazed one of them.

If so, it could not have been his laser because it had a range of three kilometres while the plane was nine kilometres away, he told the court.

Mr Camilleri said that, according to the pilots’ report, the plane would have been over Qormi at the time, so it would be impossible for him to hit the cockpit when his location was behind the vehicle’s flight path.

He submitted a report on lasers hitting planes noting that pilots would only receive near blindness when hit from a distance of 350 feet.

Magistrate Carol Peralta said he wanted an aviation expert to testify in the next sitting to explain what would happen when a plane was hit by a laser beam.

The case continues.