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Douglas Hughes: Former Postal Worker Who Landed Aircraft On Capitol Hill Gets 120 Days in Prison

By Patrick Frye
Published on: 03:28 PST, Apr 22, 2016

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced former Florida postal worker Douglas Hughes to 120 days in prison Thursday. The 62-year-old had flown his gyrocopter and landed it on U.S. Capitol grounds as part of a protest that saw over 1,200 people arrested in Washington in 2015. Hughes, in an act of political defiance, flew his 350-pound craft on 10 gallons of gas, 70 miles from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to Capitol Hill. He pleaded guilty to one felony count of flying without an aircraft license.

As the Washington Post reports, Douglas’ guilty plea made prosecutors to drop a slew of felony charges against him, which included one felony charge of operating an aircraft with registration, one misdemeanor count of operating a vehicle wrongly labeled as a postal carrier, and three misdemeanor counts of violating national defense airspace.

Hughes admitted to flying without a flight plan and entering restricted airspace. He also agreed to forfeit his” flying lawn chair” that transported him to the Capitol grounds where he had planned to serve letters to members of congress complaining about the political climate in America.

“You had tunnel vision for publicity and media attention for yourself and not to the public-safety consequences,” Judge Kollar-Kotelly told Hughes. She described his “publicity stunt” as a reckless way of endangering lives, warning anyone wanting to attempt a similar feat that they might not be as lucky if they tried to violate the no-fly zones around the U.S. capitol.

Prosecutors were looking for a 10-month sentence for the former mailman from Ruskin, Florida, calling his 60-minute flight “miraculous” because it came within seven miles of over 20 airports before making a near-to-the-ground flight over a mall at 50 mph. Prosecutors said Hughes, flying a “bare-bones aircraft,” flew dangerously close to a commercial flight taking off from a Washington airport. Hughes has slammed the accusation and denied that he nearly crashed into an airplane.

The flight threw Capitol Hill into a frenzy, which initiated a lockdown. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tejpal S. Chawla described Hughes’ flight as a game of “Russian roulette.” He added. “a stray kite, a gust of wind, a child letting go of some balloons,” and it would have been a different story entirely.

Hughes, addressing the court, apologized and asked for a probationary sentence. He insisted that he had no regrets about playing mailman and delivering his messages to Congress and speaking out against the influence of money in U.S. politics. “I was not a risk to air traffic, commercial or private, at the altitude I was flying,” he maintained.

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During his trial, Hughes had been restricted to his home in Hillsborough County in Florida, but had asked the judge to allow him join demonstrators during the Democracy Spring Movement — protests in tandem with the demonstrations that saw police arrest more than 1,000 people and saw him picked up after he landed his gyrocopter on Capitol Hill grounds.

Hughes’ legal team tried to keep him out of jail, arguing that no one was injured during his flight, deeming his stunt as an “act of aerial civil disobedience” that had made the nation realize that wealthy donors were adversely affecting the direction of politics in America. His attorneys said rather than being imprisoned, Hughes should be seen as a hero.

“Doug’s freedom was a flight dedicated to freedom of speech, to ending corruption and restoring democracy to the people,” attorney Mark L. Goldstone said, likening his actions to Harriet Tubman and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Kollar-Kotelly said it was totally ludicrous to put Hughes in the same league as those who changed the course of American history. She explained that civil obedience justifiably targeted racial segregation and slavery, adding that she failed to see the connection between financing political campaigns and violating restricted airspace. She told the flying crusader to give plenty of thought about his advocacy plans in prison so that he did not end up in court again.

Do you think 120 days is a long enough sentence for Douglas Hughes?

[Image via Shutterstock/ShaunWilkinson]

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