A member of a bomb squad checks a small helicopter after a man landed on the West Lawn of the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 15, 2015. Police arrested a man who steered his tiny, one-person helicopter onto the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, astonishing spring tourists and prompting a temporary lockdown of the Capitol Visitor Center. AP
WASHINGTON, United States — Police arrested a man who steered his tiny aircraft onto the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol after flying through restricted airspace around the National Mall Wednesday.
In this March, 2015, photo, Doug Hughes flies his gyrocopter near the Wauchula Municipal Airport in Wauchula, Florida. Police didn’t immediately identify the man who steered his one-person helicopter onto the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, but Hughes, a Florida postal carrier, took responsibility for the stunt on a website. AP
The pilot was Doug Hughes, 61, a Postal Service worker from Ruskin, Florida, according to a person who was briefed by Capitol Police and revealed the information on condition of anonymity. On his website, Hughes took responsibility for the stunt and said he was delivering letters to all 535 members of Congress to draw attention to campaign finance corruption.
“As I have informed the authorities, I have no violent inclinations or intent,” Hughes wrote on his website, thedemocracyclub.org. “An ultralight aircraft poses no major physical threat — it may present a political threat to graft. I hope so. There’s no need to worry — I’m just delivering the mail.”
Secret Service interview
A second source, a Senate aide, said Capitol Police knew of the plan shortly before Hughes took off, and said he had previously been interviewed by the U.S. Secret Service. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the investigation. Capitol Police declined to publicly confirm the man’s identity.
A Capitol Hill police officer looks toward the small helicopter that landed on the West Lawn of the Capitol in Washington. AP
Capitol Police identified the open-air aircraft, which sported the U.S. Postal Service logo and landed about half a city block from the Capitol building, as a “gyrocopter with a single occupant.”
Hughes flew to Washington from the vicinity of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which took about an hour, said Ben Montgomery, a reporter with the Tampa Bay Times. Montgomery said Hughes discussed his plan in advance with the newspaper, had meticulously plotted his flight and considered himself on a mission that was “sort of a mix of P.T. Barnum and Paul Revere.”
House Homeland Security panel Chairman Michael McCaul said the pilot landed on his own, but authorities were prepared to shoot him down if he had made it much closer to the Capitol. “Had it gotten any closer to the speaker’s balcony they have long guns to take it down, but it didn’t. It landed right in front,” McCaul said.
Members of the media converge near Constitution Avenue on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 15, 2015, after a small helicopter landed on the West Lawn of the Capitol. AP
Unauthorized flight
The Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot had not been in contact with air traffic controllers and the FAA didn’t authorize him to enter restricted airspace.
Airspace security rules that cover the Capitol and the District of Columbia prohibit private aircraft flights without prior coordination and permission. Violators can face civil and criminal penalties.
The White House said President Barack Obama had been briefed on the situation.