Gyrocopter Lands On The Lawns of Capitol Hill, Washington DC To Mark Protest

U.S. Capitol Police have detained Doug Hughes who flew over and landed a gyrocopter on the lawns of Capitol Hill.

A Florida mailman has been arrested after flying a small gyrocopter onto the West Front of the Capitol, prompting Capitol Police to briefly lock down the building.

Witnesses described a man flying on a gyrocopter — a contraption looking like a bike with helicopter wings streaking across the sky before it crossed onto the US Capitol lawn on Wednesday afternoon. Authorities later revealed that the copter had been marked as soon as it breached the No-Fly 'P56-Zone' and was just seconds from being shot out of the sky when it landed onto the green lawns.

Newspapers later reported that the man arrested has been identified as Doug Hughes who had been planning his flight into Capitol Hill for over two years. Hughes took responsibility for the stunt on a website where he said he was delivering letters to all 535 members of Congress in order to draw attention to campaign finance corruption.