BOSTON -- Massachusetts state police said Tuesday they are investigating an incident at Logan International Airport where a laser-type light was reportedly pointed at an aircraft.

They said a pilot reported the laser was pointed at his plane at about 12:47 a.m. Tuesday morning as the plane was taxiing on a runway.

The incident may be the latest in a string of ongoing laser "attacks" reported by pilots at airports across the United States.

A 24-year-old Washington state man was arrested by the Port of Seattle police earlier this month and charged with shining a laser at landing airplanes near Sea-Tac Airport.

The arrest followed several weeks of complaints by pilots there that both green and red lasers were being shined into their cockpits.

Shining lasers at airplanes and other emergency workers is a Class C felony in Washington State. The FBI was investigating the laser incidents at Sea-Tac.

In 2005, federal authorities used the Patriot Act to charge a New Jersey man with pointing a laser at an overhead plane and temporarily blinding the pilot and co-pilot.

In that incident, David Banach, 38, of Parsippany, N.J., admitted to federal agents that he pointed a light beam at a jet and a helicopter over his home near Teterboro Airport. He was accused of interfering with the operator of a mass transportation vehicle.

The previous month, the FBI and the Homeland Security Department warned law enforcement agencies that there was evidence that terrorists had explored using lasers as weapons, but said there was no suspicion of terrorism in the Parsippany case.

In January of this year, Justin Dewalt, 26, a Cleveland, Ohio man, pleaded guilty to shining green lights into the cockpits of airplanes and a helicopter at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

The Web site www.laserpointersafety.com warns laser users against pointing beams at aircraft saying "the light can be so bright it causes glare (pilots can’t see past the light) or temporary flashblindness (like getting a camera flash in your eye). Also, some pilots have thought a laser gunsight was being aimed at them, so they have taken evasive action on takeoff or landing."

(Click here for results of FAA Study on effects of lasers on pilots)

According to the site, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said there were 148 laser attacks on aircraft in the U.S. between Jan. 1 and Feb. 23 of this year. That is an average of 2.7 incidents per day.