After all the media coverage about people pointing lasers at commercial aircraft, I started to wonder what was so special about lasers.

It seems to me that the amount of distraction that could be done with a 5mW laser is significantly less than what could be done with something else.

For example, if I bought/borrowed the light beam from the Luxor hotel, put it in my backyard, turned it on, and pointed it at the planes flying out of a major airport, I would expect that pilots might have some more issues with a 4.3 Billion candela beam than with a 5mW laser (right?)

However, I can't find any laws against it, so would this technically be legal?

Alternatively, what if I just wanted to swing that beam around in the sky, and it accidentally crossed the path of a plane? Are there different laws regarding unintentionally hitting a plane with something like this?