Not a Nut....

Gyrocopter pilot's friend: 'He's not a nut'

By Nick Gass

Doug Hughes, the 61-year-old Florida postal worker who piloted a gyrocopter to the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, is “not a psychopath,” his friend and fellow letter carrier Mike Shanahan told The Washington Post.

“I realize this stunt seems totally insane. But he’s not a nut,” Shanahan said. “What he wanted to do was get America’s attention. And he sure did that.”

Shanahan said he and Hughes made a website two years ago about threats facing the United States, including campaign-finance issues, but it hadn’t gained any traction.

“It was frustrating because nobody cared. And we were trying to think of ways to get a little more public awareness,” he said. “Now, Doug had just bought that gyrocopter. And one day he said: ‘You know, I’ve come up with an idea. Tell me what you think of this.’”

Hughes’ friend seemed to think that was not the best idea at the time.

“My reaction was, you don’t do that in D.C.! I told him, ‘Look, you got all these agencies there, all these guys with all these kinds of weapons, and they will see you coming, and they will kill you,’” he told the Post.

Instead, Hughes was arrested upon landing. Appearing in U.S. District Court on Thursday, he was charged with operating an unregistered aircraft and violating restricted national airspace. He was released on bond and placed on home detention in Florida, but is scheduled to return to Washington for a May 8 court date. He can only return to D.C. for court-related issues.

He faces up to four years in prison.