Pilot arrested after small aircraft lands near Capitol

Marisol Bello | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Gyrocopter pilot on Secret Service radar before stunt A Florida mailman was arrested after flying a one-man chopper through restricted airspace and landing on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol. He apparently wanted to make a public statement about corruption in Congress.

A Florida mailman bent on making a public statement about corruption in Congress flew a small one-man aircraft through restricted airspace and landed on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, the latest in a recent series of startling security breaches at the seat of government in Washington.

No weapons were found on the plane and the man stated he was making an act of civil disobedience. But the sight of his low and slow-flying aircraft approaching and landing by Washington's most famous landmarks prompted a brief security lockdown at the Capitol and raised broader concerns about the effectiveness of security measures in an area that home to all three branches of government.

The security scare came after a man shot himself to death in front of the Capitol on Saturday, also prompting a temporary lockdown. In January, a small drone aircraft crashed onto the White House lawn. And last September, a man idenfied as Omar J. Gonzalez jumped a fence and entered the White House through the North Portico doors, overpowered a Secret Service officer and ran through part of the main floor before being tackled and subdued.

Police have not explained how the aircraft got around security. The area around the Capitol is a no-fly zone.

AP EXCLUSIVE: Witness captures Capitol landing 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. (April 15)

U.S. Capitol Police said its officers arrested Douglas Mark Hughes, of Ruskin, Fla. Charges are pending, Officer Shennell Antrobus said, and he was being held in jail in Washington. The aircraft was searched and cleared by a bomb squad, she said.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that Hughes, 61, a mail carrier and father of four from near Tampa, planned to land the one-man chopper on the Capitol grounds as a non-violent act of civil disobedience to draw attention to his call for reform of campaign finance laws.

Hughes flew to Washington from near Gettysburg, Pa., which took about an hour, said Ben Montgomery, a reporter with the Tampa Bay Times.

In an email to WUSA-TV in Washington, Hughes provided information on his flight and said he was delivering letters to every member of Congress. He provided a link to a website, TheDemocracyClub.org, with information about his plans.

He described the plane as "a 250-pound ultralight gyroplane,'' a type of aircraft often called a "gyrocopter," made from kits and propelled by a small motor with room for only a pilot on board. "I'm the pilot,'' he wrote.

"What's unique and newsworthy is the delivery,'' he wrote to the TV station. "I'm going to land my gyro on the front lawn of the Capitol Building at the top end of the National Mall. The issue is important enough to defy the no-fly zone and risk life and limb, and my freedom in pursuit of an honest government that represents the people.''

On the website, he wrote: "This isn't my regular route. I'm a mailman in Riverview, FL – near Tampa. I'm 61 years old, married, with four children. I flew with my father who was a private pilot, fixed wing and almost helicopter. I've been flying gyrocopters for over a year.''

The Airplane Owners and Pilots Association, which lobbies for general aviation, issued a statement saying: "His actions appear to be unsettled, and it is unacceptable that he chose to deliver his political statement by flagrantly violating the National Capital airspace. This person's actions should in no way be associated with the law-abiding professional and recreational pilots who every day follow the rules and regulations of the national airspace system.''

Bomb squad checks out gyropcopter on Capitol lawn A person was arrested afternoon after they landed a small gyrocopter on the West Lawn of the Capitol building.

The newspaper said Hughes contacted a reporter there in case he was shot down or killed by police as he tried to land.

He said he had with him 535 letters that he wanted to deliver to each member of Congress, detailing his complaints. On his website, he wrote: "Any real examination of corruption in Washington will lead to an examination of campaign finance -- and reform will threaten the orgy of unlimited campaign cash...''

"There's no question that we need government, but we don't have to accept that it's a corrupt government that sells out to the highest bidder," he told the newspaper. "We can have a government that works for the people, that answers to the people, that can only take money from the people in small amounts."

The paper said it called the U.S. Secret Service in Washington, D.C., to see if they were aware of Hughes' flight plans. Public information officers told the paper they did not know and referred them to the Capitol Police, which did not respond.

On the website, identified by the Tampa Bay Times as the site Hughes built in advance of his flight, he wrote, "My flight is not a secret. Before I took off, I sent an email to info@barackobama.com. The letter is intended to persuade the guardians of the Capitol that I am not a threat and that shooting me down will be a bigger headache than letting me deliver these letters to Congress."

Hughes says he and a friend wrote a document called "The Civilist Papers," which calls for free and fair elections without fraud, ending the control of special interests and lobbyists, campaign finance reform and the end of "profiteering by Congress while in office."

The friend, Mike Shanahan, who works with Hughes as a mail carrier in the Tampa area, told CNN that Hughes is not dangerous. Shanahan said the flight was meant to send a message about the need for reform in elections.

"He has no weapons or anything else," Shanahan said. "I know him personally. He's like a pitbull when he has an idea. He wants to wake up the country.

"He's upset that politicians can be bought and sold at auction, and I agree with him," Shanahan told the news channel.

Shanahan told the Tampa Bay Times that he called a Secret Service agent to notify him of the possibility of the flight.

The newspaper reported that both Hughes and Shanahan were questioned by a Secret Service agent last spring about their ideas to "save America." Hughes told the newspaper that he told the agent he owned a gyrocopter and that he had talked of doing "something big to bring attention to the issue," but that he was not planning on crashing into any buildings or monuments in the nation's capitol.

Contributing: Erin Kelly in Washington, William M. Welch in Los Angeles