A Portland trauma hospital’s emergency helicopters were forced to divert, significantly adding to their travel time, when local anarchists threatened to “ground” aircraft with laser lights — a federal crime.

Oregon Health & Science University told KGW that several air ambulance vendors refused to land on the hospital’s helipad Saturday evening because of the planned attack. The threatened interruption to air travel added 45 to 60 minutes of travel time for these emergency helicopters.

'If enough lasers are pointed at the aircraft, we think it will not be able to safely stay in the air for long enough to continue to pinpoint the source for law enforcement, and numbers will make it difficult to focus on a single person.'

“For most patients, that will be an acceptable delay. However, for

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