Florida man whose gyrocopter landed by US Capitol gets 120 days behind bars

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

A man who piloted a one-person gyrocopter through some of the most restricted US airspace and landed on the lawn of the Capitol in Washington has been sentenced to 120 days behind bars.

Florida resident Douglas Hughes was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Washington by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. Hughes has said his April 2015 flight in the bare-bones aircraft, which began in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was a way to call attention to the influence of big money in politics.

Hughes pleaded guilty in November to a felony for operating a gyrocopter without a license.

Prosecutors asked he be sentenced to 10 months in prison, arguing that the former mail carrier from Ruskin, Florida, put countless lives at risk. Hughes’s attorneys argued he should be allowed to remain out of jail.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/21/gyrocopter-us-capitol-douglas-hughes-sentenced

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Associated Press in Washington DC
Thursday 21 April 2016 23.09 BST

[keithbvadu2]

1. For breaching the security of the WH, no matter who is president, he deserves

jail time.

[Major Nikon]

5. For that and other things

He was also an uncertified pilot who willfully violated very busy controlled airspace without any communication with ATC, coming close to colliding with an airliner carrying 150 people. That alone can and should get you jail time.

So while the spirit of his act may have been admirable, the reality is that he put himself and many other people at unnecessary risk.

[JonLeibowitz]

2. Still a better congressional candidate than DWS

[PatrynXX]

3. True

and she's actually put lives at risk oversees

[Sunlei]

4. When will we see the gyrocopter up for auction on the government seizure sales?

[murielm99]

6. Florida man. Again.