Yeah, I read that he's being charged under the Patriot Act, but in the end, I doubt you can convict him of terrorism. The penalty for interfering with a flight crew is up to 25 years in prison. Go for what you're likely to win a conviction. To use a baseball analogy, lawyers who "swing for the bleachers" trying for a big conviction quite frequently end up striking out.

I've read there are some much more powerful handheld lasers (green ones) available on the Internet for $50 to $600. Some of these units reportedly have ranges of over 2 miles. It's suspected that these airliner incidents are people with those units who're mainly being stupid. If that does prove the case, it goes to show that shining a laser on a moving plane isn't as hard as some people seem to believe.