:00:00. > 3:59:59acquitted last week of murdering PC Blakelock. Here on One we can now
:00:00. > :00:16.join the And now the news for the East
:00:17. > :00:19.Midlands, I'm Dominic Heale. Good evening.
:00:20. > :00:22.Three men who put hundreds of passengers in danger have been
:00:23. > :00:24.jailed for aiming a laser beam at planes landing at East Midlands
:00:25. > :00:26.Airport. 21`year`old Luke Walters, seen here
:00:27. > :00:35.on crutches, and Craig Appleby, who's 20, were sentenced to five
:00:36. > :00:38.months in prison. 19`year`old Alex Parker was jailed for seven months.
:00:39. > :00:44.The judge in the case strongly condemned their actions, as Simon
:00:45. > :00:47.Ward reports. These pictures from a police
:00:48. > :00:52.exercise show how powerful laser pointers can be. Officials on the
:00:53. > :00:55.ground aim the laser into the sky. This could affect the vision of a
:00:56. > :00:59.crew at night, and they'd even closer to the laser during landing
:01:00. > :01:02.or take off. The crew heard that three aircraft
:01:03. > :01:09.and the control tower at East Midlands Airport were struck by the
:01:10. > :01:13.laser. `` the court heard. The crew of one aircraft said it was
:01:14. > :01:15.so bright, they covered the glass of the cockpit and landed on
:01:16. > :01:17.instruments only. 20`year`old Craig Appleby from
:01:18. > :01:20.Loughborough pleaded guilty with the others. They were caught near East
:01:21. > :01:23.Midlands Airport in February last year. He told me he regrets the
:01:24. > :01:29.whole thing. I know what dangers it can cause.
:01:30. > :01:33.It's horrible. So on reflection you can understand the danger that there
:01:34. > :01:39.could be to pilots, do you? After I read my statement, I was very, very
:01:40. > :01:42.shocked at what damage it did. Having pleaded guilty, what would
:01:43. > :01:46.you say to people who are concerned by this? All I can say is I'm very
:01:47. > :01:50.sorry for what happened. You know. It'll never happen again. We was
:01:51. > :01:54.unaware at what we was doing. It was one of our Airbus aircraft,
:01:55. > :01:59.an A320, and the main surprise was shock, it was the surprise that the
:02:00. > :02:04.pilots have reported. The real danger is flash blindness. A laser
:02:05. > :02:07.encounter comes unexpectedly, and it's extremely bright, and that
:02:08. > :02:13.flash blindness stays with the pilot for a while.
:02:14. > :02:17.Laser pointing is an offence that's been increasing. The Civil Aviation
:02:18. > :02:21.Authority say East Midlands Airport ranks about in the middle for UK
:02:22. > :02:27.airports.. With 70 laser incidents reported for the last year alone in
:02:28. > :02:31.the East Midlands. The latest unemployment figures show
:02:32. > :02:34.the East Midlands is one of the few English regions bucking the national
:02:35. > :02:46.trend, with an increase in its jobless figures. There are now
:02:47. > :02:49.163,000 people out of work. That's a rise of 14,000 on the last quarterly
:02:50. > :02:51.figures, although the region's unemployment rate of 7% is the same
:02:52. > :02:53.as the national average. figures,
:02:54. > :02:56.However, these latest figures won't reflect a recent round of big job
:02:57. > :02:58.loss announcements in the region's more traditional industries.
:02:59. > :02:59.However, these latest figures won't reflect a recent round of big With
:03:00. > :03:04.more on that, here's our political editor John Hess.
:03:05. > :03:08.Well, old industries may go but making things still matters in the
:03:09. > :03:11.East Midlands. There are 300, 000 jobs in the region's manufacturing
:03:12. > :03:16.sector, no surprise there maybe, but look at this ` that figure's fallen
:03:17. > :03:19.by 40% over the last 25 years, and in turn, 1.5 million people now work
:03:20. > :03:29.in the service sector; banks, retail, leisure, hospitality. That's
:03:30. > :03:38.increased by an eye`watering 866% in the East Midlands. Now, our world of
:03:39. > :03:41.work is changing. When coal dominated the region's
:03:42. > :03:44.economy two generations ago, the collieries of the East Midlands
:03:45. > :03:50.provided work for more than 60,000 people. It was a way of life. The
:03:51. > :03:53.closure of our last pit, Thoresby, was announced a week ago. Likewise
:03:54. > :03:55.shoemaking in Leicester, bicycle making in Nottingham, textiles in
:03:56. > :03:58.Derbyshire, until yesterday cigarette manufacture at Imperial
:03:59. > :04:06.Tobacco ` they're all part of the sunset industries, gone or going.
:04:07. > :04:10.If the industrial landscape of the East Midlands is changing, you see
:04:11. > :04:12.it on estates like this. New companies, smaller companies,
:04:13. > :04:18.specialising in IT, pharmaceuticals and precision engineering.
:04:19. > :04:20.That's reflected in new research by one of the country's biggest
:04:21. > :04:25.business organisations, the D2N2 Chamber of Commerce for the East
:04:26. > :04:28.Midlands. We have got this growth in
:04:29. > :04:33.manufacturing jobs going on locally, but yes, the world of work is
:04:34. > :04:35.changing. More people are being self`employed, taking their own
:04:36. > :04:39.economic destiny into their own hands, more people are doing more
:04:40. > :04:42.than one job, so maybe doing several jobs which is in some respects very
:04:43. > :04:48.helpful, if there is ever a downturn, that they don't actually
:04:49. > :04:55.lose the whole of their employment. Cue Nygel Stevenson. Having worked
:04:56. > :05:00.for an established big`name company, he decided to branch out on his own.
:05:01. > :05:02.Madcap? He's set up his own cafe business in Kimberley near
:05:03. > :05:07.Nottingham, called the Madhatter. He now employs seven people.
:05:08. > :05:09.I think if everybody that wanted to own their own business within a
:05:10. > :05:12.community did that, and employed people locally, slowly the economy
:05:13. > :05:16.would get better and the communities would be built ` it's not just about
:05:17. > :05:23.the money, it's about the communities and working within the
:05:24. > :05:26.communities. All my staff are local. And I love the fact that we're
:05:27. > :05:30.buying into the community and working together.
:05:31. > :05:33.The way we work, and who we work for, is changing.
:05:34. > :05:36.Now, here's another sign of our changing economy ` think science and
:05:37. > :05:41.you may think of Cambridge or the Silicon Valley, but the East
:05:42. > :05:48.Midlands? Our region's science and technical sector now employs 155,000
:05:49. > :05:53.people. That's an increase of just under 80% since the late 1990s. Now,
:05:54. > :05:57.if that rate of growth continues, forget coal, textiles and tobacco `
:05:58. > :06:05.we'll be talking of science as one of our traditional industries.
:06:06. > :06:09.Now, as the Easter break approaches, there's a timely reminder to drivers
:06:10. > :06:11.to take special care when towing a caravan.
:06:12. > :06:16.These dramatic pictures capture the moment a caravan veers wildly across
:06:17. > :06:19.the M1 in Leicestershire. It narrowly misses other traffic,
:06:20. > :06:24.before overturning on the hard shoulder. Last year in the East
:06:25. > :06:26.Midlands there were almost 500 accidents involving caravans and
:06:27. > :06:30.other towed vehicles. That's your news. So, it's goodbye
:06:31. > :06:35.from me ` but with your weather now, here's Anna Church.
:06:36. > :06:40.here's Anna If you've been enjoying the spring
:06:41. > :06:44.sunshine today, there will be more to come for the Easter break. It
:06:45. > :06:49.looks like we are in for a cloudy day tomorrow. We have had fairly
:06:50. > :06:54.clear skies this evening, but we're starting to see cloud feeding in
:06:55. > :07:00.from the North West. It is fairly thin but it should keep us frost
:07:01. > :07:05.free tonight. Where the cloud is then first thing in might give us a
:07:06. > :07:11.little bit of brightness. Then we will start to see the cloud really
:07:12. > :07:15.thicken. It is largely dry, but be prepared for the odd spot of light
:07:16. > :07:21.rain or drizzle. With the cloud it feels a little bit cooler tomorrow,
:07:22. > :07:27.with a westerly breeze. Friday higher pressure is back in charge.
:07:28. > :07:32.It will be a dry, settled day with long, sunny spells. I will leave you
:07:33. > :07:41.with the outlook, as we go into Good Friday and Easter weekend.
:07:42. > :07:47.Good evening. The good news is that it will be a reasonably sunny start
:07:48. > :07:50.to the Easter weekend. The bad news is that it will not stay that way
:07:51. > :07:56.for many of us. Overnight tonight, many of us will be dry with patchy
:07:57. > :08:00.rain across Scotland. Some of us will -- some of this will track into
:08:01. > :08:06.northern England and were. Quite patchy in nature. Not a lot of rain.
:08:07. > :08:10.Dry further south. Maybe a touch of frost across the far south-east. The
:08:11. > :08:13.other end of the UK, blustery showers across the North West of
:08:14. > :08:24.Scotland but further south, patchy rain across northern and will. --
:08:25. > :08:26.North England and were. A sunny start across the far south-east of
:08:27. > :08:27.thing and after