A Florida pilot who landed a small gyrocopter on the U.S. Capitol lawn will spend a few months in jail. He meant to deliver a letter to each member of Congress demanding that they stop being influenced by lobbyists and corporations looking to buy votes.
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He pleaded guilty to one felony count of flying without an aircraft license. Hughes was employed as a U.S. postal carrier, but he did not have authorization to use the U.S. Postal Service emblem on his gyrocopter. He forfeited his gyrocopter to the government, and was placed on house arrest in Ruskin. Hughes, in an act of political defiance, flew his 350-pound craft on 10 gallons of gas, 70 miles from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to Capitol Hill.
Prosecutors have called Hughes “reckless in the extreme”, and said it was “miraculous” no one was hurt by his publicity stunt, in which he flew at low altitude over the National Mall at less than 50 m.p.h.
Do you think 120 days is a long enough sentence for Douglas Hughes? Hughes’s attorneys asked for no jail time.
Hughes took to the pages of The Washington Post after his flight, explaining his position on campaign finance and defending his actions.
Hughes expressed remorse and apologized to police and his family, but he said he had no regrets. “My message for the past year has been that the crisis of corruption is within the power of the people to solve”.
“The hammer did not strike, but it was all a matter of luck”, Chawla said, adding that “a stray kite, a gust of wind, a child letting go some balloons” and the outcome could have been different. “Everything from here on out is better than I expected”, Hughes said.
In previous court proceedings, Kollar-Kotelly denied a request by Hughes to join demonstrators with the self-described Democracy Spring movement, who marched from Philadelphia to Washington this month. Hughes had planned the the flight for 2 ½ years, and even told some friends about it.
In court, Hughes’s lawyers cited news reports and editorials that a “wealthy oligarchy of donors” dominates us politics. His attorneys also stressed that the “freedom flight” was a nonviolent act of “civil disobedience” and that he has no criminal history.
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Kollar-Kotelly disagreed, saying Hughes “was not in that league”. He said his flight a year prior resulted in more media attention than those protests because they were too civil to spark much interest from major media organizations.
