U.S. Capitol-landing autogyro pilot was protesting campaign finance law

U.S. Capitol-landing autogyro pilot was protesting campaign finance law

The mailman has been planning the stunt the last two and one-half years.

Doug Hughes, the Ruskin, Virginia mailman who violated the no-fly zone around the U.S. Capitol and landed his autogyro (also known as a gyrocopter) on the Capitol Mall, did so to gain visibility for his protest against campaign finance laws in the United States. He was arrested without incident.

Hughes said he gave authorities a heads-up an hour ahead of time so they knew who he was and what he was doing. He said his did not think that Washington security forces would “shoot down a sixty-year-old mailman in a flying bicycle,” he said in a video prepared ahead of the flight.

Trina Hamilton, a sergeant in the watch commander’s office of the Secret Service, said nobody in her organization was notified. On the other hand, a friend of Hughes, Mike Shanahan, said that Hughes at some point did leave a message with a Secret Service agent but did not hear back. It is not known if Hughes attempted to contact the U.S. Capitol Police.

Hughes had set up a live-streaming website to broadcast his flight in progress but Shanahan said he tried to access it at the time of the flight couldn’t so he then had doubts whether the flight was actually happening. Hughes believes that the U.S. Government is corrupt at least in part because the campaign finance system is broken. The government “sells out to the highest bidder,” he said. It is not clear if his message was heard.

The flight was not at all spontaneous. After two and one-half years of planning, Hughes flew low over northeast Washington D.C. Wednesday about 1:20 p.m., rounded the Washington Monument and flew up the breadth of the National Mall. He landed his tiny flying craft directly in front of the U.S. Capitol building where police surrounded him quickly and without incident. His intent to deliver the 535 letters he had on board – one for each member of Congress – did not happen.

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