Washington D.C.–For some reason, a man flew a one-person gyrocopter to the US Capitol building in Washington and landed it on the Capitol’s west lawn. As soon as he landed from flying in the restricted air space, Capitol police arrested him.
No official information yet on why the man was flying the small single person craft and why he landed it in front of the Capitol building.
The man has yet to be formally identified but it is possible it is a man pushing campaign finance reform.
The aircraft — being described as a “gyrocopter” — landed on the West Lawn of the Capitol at about 1:25 p.m. Capitol Police arrested the single person in the gyrocopter.
The aircraft was able to penetrate the secured airspace in D.C. The Capitol was briefly on lockdown, but has since been lifted.
The Tampa Bay Times reports a Florida man planned to pilot his gyrocopter to D.C. Wednesday to protest campaign finance reform. Is it not yet clear if the man, Doug Hughes, was the man who was detained.
Well, he got noticed, anyway.
Here is a photo of the man being detained…
it's a small "gyrocopter" – he's been arrested by Capitol Police pic.twitter.com/XlqinJcMy7
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) April 15, 2015