Douglas Hughes, the guy who piloted a one-man gyrocopter onto the lawn of the Capitol last week told reporters Sunday that was as surprised as anyone else that he was actually able to land there. He had assumed he would have been stopped well before then. The incident that sparked a renewed emphasis on security at the White House and the Washington, D.C., region.
“I had expected to be intercepted on the the way,” the 61 year-old former postal worker told reporters outside his Ruskin, Fla., home. He added that most people in the nation’s capitol seemed amused by him and waved as he flew past.
“People were not frightened at all,” he said. “I waved back. That part of it was surreal.”
Hughes started his flight in Gettysburg, Pa., and literally flew under the radar until he made it into D.C. airspace. He has since said the flight was part effort to get D.C. to pass stricter campaign finance reform laws.
He was arrested upon arrival and now faces charges of unlawfully operating an unregistered aircraft and violating national defense airspace. He faces a maximum sentence of four years in jail.
The consequences could have been much worse. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Air Force’s legal branch (the Judge Advocate General’s Corps), said on Fox News Sunday that the military would have been justified in shooting Hughes down when he reached D.C. airspace.
Hughes was allowed to return to his Florida home after a court determined, ironically enough, that he was not a flight risk. He was nevertheless ordered to remain at home in detention until a preliminary hearing on May 8.
He told reporters his transgressions were minor. “We’ve got bigger problems in this country than fussing about whether or not the security around D.C. is ironclad. We need to be worried about the piles of money that are going into Congress,” he said.
