Mini Copter Pilot Indicted after Landing at U.S. Capitol

A man who landed his mini helicopter on the U.S. Capitol lawn was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury and faces six charges relating to the security scare. 

Douglas Hughes, 61, a postal worker from Ruskin, Florida was arrested on April 15 after he landed his gyropcopter on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, the seat of Congress in the heart of Washington. 

Hughes, who does not have a pilot's license, passed through three no-fly zones before landing the device, decorated with a U.S. Postal Service flag, on the Capitol grounds. 

He was indicted on six charges, including the felonies of "operating as an airman without an airman's certificate and violating registration requirements involving aircraft," acting U.S. Attorney Vincent Cohen said in a statement.

He also faces four misdemeanor charges for violating national airspace and operating a vehicle that was incorrectly labeled as a postal carrier. 

Hughes will be arraigned Thursday before a federal judge in Washington. 

He faces a statutory maximum of three years in prison and fines for the charges.   

Cohen said Hughes has no official reason to be in DC when the mini helicopter landed at Capitol, after flying 87 miles (140 kilometers) from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 

"Hughes was employed by the U.S. Postal Service as a postal carrier in Florida, but he was on leave at the time of the incident, and had no official duties in the Washington, DC area," the statement said. 

Hughes has been under house arrest in Florida and is ordered to wear a GPS tracking device. A court also ordered Hughes to surrender his passport, report weekly to federal pre-trial services in Tampa and to abstain from flying an aircraft of any kind.

The U.S. Attorney reiterated an order that Hughes stay away from high-security landmarks in the U.S. capital.

"Any time that he is in the District of Columbia, Hughes must stay away from the Capitol, White House and nearby areas," Cohen said. 

Hughes told a local newspaper before the incident he was exercising his right to civil disobedience and wanted to send a message to lawmakers about campaign finance reform. 

The episode sparked a security scare and forced Capitol Police to place the building under lockdown in the midst of one of Washington's busiest tourism seasons.