doug hughes grew up in santa cruz and the son of janet hughes, a local politician in 1970s. his mother leaned to right in politics hughes is getting positive attention from liberals for his stunt. lauren make spoke to him as soon has he got back home. >> i told you it would be fun. >> reporter: doug hughes is back at home where he's been ordered to stay after flying his gyro plane into washington, d.c. >> one single pass up the mall and took it right up to where i intended to land. >> reporter: he made it to the grounds of the u.s. capitol causing a national stir but describing a different view from the air. >> people were not frightened at all. they looked at it and people waved at me. >> reporter: the stunt, though sent shockwaves across the country over d.c.'s security. if he could do it, who else could? >> we need to be worried not about whether or not somebody can fly into d.c. we need to be worried about the pile of money that's going into

hughes was going to fly that copter. in fact he told a lot of news outlets about his plans including us. but he actually started talking to one reporter at the tampa bay times a long time ago. and they knew that the secret service had talked to hughes twice. they called capitol police about 30 minutes before hughes touched down. washington post media critic says that it was not enough. >> and as reporters, we are not suppose to be in the business of hiding from the public, the potential public safety threat. in this case a guy flying a small helicopter in to restricted air space could have gone terribly wrong. >> and now the tampa reporter on the story says that he did worry about how things could have gone terribly wrong, but he believes it is a story that wasn't worth reporting that it ntis uil hughes crossed in to the restricted air space. >> right. >> we'd love to hear your thoughts on this one. tweet us any time. >> and some will say you know, we are not investigators either. so you know, where is the responsibility

with his message delivered doug hughes left the u.s. district courthouse today in silence, free for now but with a long list of restrictions and conditions ordered by the court, no flying, no d.c. and no leaving his tampa home once he gets back the judge told hughes still dressed in his postal service uniform. the court read two charges, one for flying an unlicensed aircraft and another for violating restricted airspace. >> this is not good, people. >> reporter: meanwhile investigators continued to puzzle over how hughes evaded radar and other defenses flying at rooftop level for nearly 100 miles to reach the capitol. investigators gave no official update on their progress today, but former secret service agent dan bongino said there must have been a failure in detection, communication or both. >> i find it really hard to believe the secret service had any specificity of this plan and did nothing. that to me seems not only unlikely, but impossible. >> reporter: the tampa bay times reporter who profiled hughes before the flight began def

it. >> reporter: montgomery says he got his first call from hughes a year ago. the 61-year-old mail carrier told the reporter he was plan black he called an act of civil disobedience that would draw a lot of attention, and in the event he got hurt or killed doing it, he wanted someone to tell his story. no reports could refuse that kind of pitch and montgomery began chronicling the lead-up to today's incident. in his time off as a mailman in a tampa suburb, douglas hughes began building and modify ago lightweight gyrocopter and a plan to use it to draw attention to a political cause. >> i will tell you completely honestly i would rather die in the flight than live to be 80 years old and see this country fall. >> reporter: the cause was campaign finance refor the purpose, an issue that rarely gets anyone's blood pumping. hughes would change that by using his copter to deliver letters to every member of congress by air, landing on the caply toll lawn and in what would surely be the national spotlight. when he heard about the plan, tampa bay times reporter ben mont

hughes appeared here today at federal court with a lawyer appointed to represent him. pilot doug hughes previously announced he intended to fly into restricted air space. as a result, he faces federal charges for violating national defense air space and operating an unregistered aircraft. if convicted, he could be punished by up to four years in prison. in court today, hughes was ordered released on his own recognizance with conditions. he will be held in home detention in tampa florida. he is prohibited from flying any aircraft and must stay away from the capitol and the white house. hughes previously said he was delivering 535 letters to congress protesting campaign financing and government corruption. his dramatic demonstration prompt a torrent of tweets, critical and supportive. this one says doug hughes is my personal hero. fantastic display of civil disobedience. bravo. i was here to see it. there was this ominous message. doug hughes may have unknowingly revealed one of the biggest security breaches in washington, d.c., since edward snowden. now, his will be res

leon: hughes is due back in court on may 8th. doug hughes' plans to land in the nation's capital to raise awareness about campaign finance reform was an idea long ago torpedoed by a man that shared his mission. hughes' best friend said it was a bad idea but he thought it was buried before he got that phone call yesterday. joce sterman is here now with the new reaction to the plot. joce? joce: that friend was a postal worker and they share the same political views, they share the same passion about the cause. where they differ though was on this extreme stunt to bring attention to their mission. >> somebody, i suspect, made a decision not to kill him. i appreciate that. joce: mike shanahan close friend of gyrocopter pilot doug hughes is simply thankful his life was spared. as a native of d.c. shanahan knows all about the rules of restricted airspace. and when hughes pitched the flight that made him national news yesterday, he tried to talk him out of it. >> argued against it constantly. joce: shanahan says after secret service age

hughes will be confined to his home with gps tracking.ekly with pre-trial services and surrender his passport. he's also not allowed to fly any kind of aircraft. and not allowed

secret service interviewed hughes about his plans in 2013. hughes talked about it with friend and he even made this video for tampa bay times. >> i will violate the the no fly zone unviolently and nobody will get hurt and i'm going to land on the capitol mall. >> reporter: hughes was delivering 535 letters to congress urging them to take up campaign finance reform. members of the congress have not received those letters just yet, all of the letters have the proper postage. reporting live from washington edward lawrence back to you good hard to believe on so many levels edward thanks very much. >>> 5:33. lets get traffic and weather together. here's katie. >> good morning everyone. the the hits just keep on coming. with hiccups along the way we will tracking a a larger storm heading in to next week but rest of this week and especially the weekend in the looking bad at all. lets take you out there we will start off with the quick check of the tri-state sweep of storm scan three which is just empty and tranquil. we have thrown satellite coverage

we are tracking new developments about hughes and what he was trying to a cop was. tom roussey has been digging into that and is live at the capital with what he learned. tom, what's the story? tom: just to give a sense of how close this gyrocopter got to the capital, it basically landed right near this cone and there is the capital, just a football field away. tonight we are learning a lot more about the man who flew here. >> i'm going to land in front of the capitol building. tom: that is doug hughes telling "the tampa bay times" he plan to do exactly what happened. >> i don't believe anybody is personally taking responsibility for what is going on for publicly executing some money for a inactive dissent. tom: oh my insecurity was prepared to shoot him down if he got closer. instead, they took him into custody. this is a reporter who said hughes contacted him out of the blue about a year ago. >> he thought if i do a stunt big enough, i can get people's attention. tom: a search by abc 7 shows that hughes has no record besides a traffic offense. in the video he said

we begin today's show with doug hughes, the u.s. mail man who made headlines when he flew a helicopter known as the gyrocopter onto the u.s. capitol lawn in an active civil disobedience. the letter began with a quote from john kerry farewell speech to the senate. "the unending chase for money, i believe, threatens to steal our democracy itself." hughes flew about an hour from maryland into restricted airspace and onto the capitol's west lawn, stunning authorities and bystanders. homeland security secretary jeh johnson said hughes literally flew below the radar, going undetected, before landing on the capitol lawn. before taking off, hughes had spoken about his plans to the "tampa bay times." doug: i am going to violate the no-fly zone, nonviolently, for no one to get hurt, and i'm going to land on the capitol lawn in front of the capitol building. i will have 535 letters strapped to the landing gear, and those letters are going to be addressed to every member of congress. i do not believe that the authorities are going to shoot down

and that call came from hughes himself. it was a stunner he said, it let shanahan know that he was in d.c. and was planning to live stream an event and wanted him to go and look on a website. that turned out to be the flight hughes had been practicing for for months. learning how to pilot that gyrocopter that eventually landed on the capitol lawn. shanahan says it was a plot that came out of a brainstorming session to drum up support for the two and their cause. campaign finance reform. shanahan grew up in the d.c. area and has long warned his friend that he risked death and potentially prison if he took that flight into restricted airspace but hughes could not be swayed and shanahan was surprised as anyone when he saw his friend end up making national news. >> he knew he could die. he knew he could be arrested. and he also knew that he could go to jail. but he was willing to do that. his stunt was dangerous and probably a little stupid. but it was also extremely brave and it was patriotic. he is not a terrorist by any mean

hughes talked about it with friends. he even made this video for "the tampa bay times." >> i'm going to violate the no-fly zone nonviolently for nobody to get hurt and i'm going to land on the capitol mall. >> reporter: hughes was delivering 530 letters to congress urging them to take up finance campaign reform. many have not received the letters yet. all of those letters had the proper postage. anne-marie? >> edward lawrence in washington. thank you, edward. >>> this morning there are red flag warnings meaning critical fire conditions exist in southern california. the fire in rialto broke out last night. firefighters battled heavy winds trying to get the fire under control. there are a number of buildings in the area, but so far no damage has been reported. >>> and there has been another deadly shooting of an unarmed man by police officers, this time in houston. it happened following a high-speed chase. the officers believed the suspect was reaching for a weapon, but no gun was found. tim wetzel of our houston station k

. >> a florida man named doug hughes claims to the pilot. he sent a letter to different news stations outlining a plan to fly a small plane to the west lawn and deliver letters to each member of congress. capitol police only have one man in custody and they cleared the scene. the bomb squad inspected the plane for well over an hour and took it away around 3:30. the big question, of course, was how was the plane able to get so close to the capitol. this entire area is supposed to be a no fly zone. we don't have an answer to. that capitol police are not planning on holding a press conference today. they will probably put out more information but we don't know many details on how the plane was able to get so close to the capitol. i'm allison barber wusa 9. a lot of people will be asking about that. garrett hake has been investigating this. >> we have doug hughes, he told his local newspaper that he first came up with this idea two and a half years ago after his son's suicide. about a year ago he started to get more serious and he got a visit fr

that social media shows hughes had since at least 2013. today, though he was arrested after flying that plane into restricted airspace. landing on the capitol lawn. now, hughes' goal, according to that tampa reporter was to raise awareness about the need for campaign finance reform. >> but he thought if i do a stunt big enough, i can -- i can get people's attention. get people to think about this -- about corruption in government. about how corporations can buy elections. joce: we could not find an active f.a.a. certificate for hughes. but he may not have needed one in this case. the airline operators and pilots association tells us that unless that plane weighed more than 254 pounds, he would not have needed that to fly the plane. joce sterman, abc 7 news. leon: very interesting. thank you. abc 7's comprehensive coverage of the incident at the u.s. capitol are available to you on wjla.com. there you'll find pictures and videos from our crews and also eyewitnesses land -- renditions rather of showing the landing the moments after to how pe

doug hughes is a u.s. postal worker and this morning we're learning he had been planning this for quite some time. and the secret service knew his name. news4's derek ward is live now at the capital with more on doug hughes. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. well, first off, mr. hughes is due in court today. he's being charged under title 49 of the u.s. code which deals with transportation because of the breach of secured air space inside the district and of course here over the mall. take a look. it's about 1:30 yesterday afternoon when hughes flew his gyrocopter all the way from gettysburg down here to the u.s. mall. making a special delivery for members of congress. he talked to local media in tampa about it. he sent e-mails to local media and posted it on facebook. it was still a surprise to folks here at the capitol, the capitol police and the faa. this despite hughes being talked to by the secret service back in 2013. he says he told the secret service he didn't plan to hurt anyone. he fully e

doug hughes is expected to make his first court appearance here in washington tomorrow.nd late tonight, police are converging on the airport in gettysburg, pennsylvania, where it's believed that hughes took off on this unprecedented stunt. lester? >> all right, peter alexander, thank you. >>> we turn to an emotional day in a massachusetts courtroom. former new england patriots player aaron hernandez learned his fate. convicted of a 2013 murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. a stunning fall for someone who was once a superstar on the football field. nbc's ron mott takes us inside the courtroom. >>> what say you, madam foreperson? >> reporter: after a two-month trial and seven days of deliberations, a dramatic end to the future of one of the nfl's most promising stars, aaron hernandez. >> guilty of murder in the first degree. >> reporter: audible gasps, hernandez appearing to say "wrong" while staring at the jury. >> so say all members of the jury? >> yes. >> reporter: his mother and fiancee wiped away tears, as did the family of the man he murdered. 27-ye

hughes must go back to tampa, florida.en ordered to home detention monitored by tampa's pretrial services program. he's been ordered to stay out of the district, specifically to stay away from the capitol and the white house. he will return here for his next court case, a preliminary hearing, on may 8th before the judge who will determine if l's reason to proceed at that time. now, social media has lit up today. coming up is

hughes: john koskinen oversees the collection mr. hughes of $3 trillion every year. he has been on the job for about 15 months. how has it gone so far? during the first half of his tenure, he testified frequently on capitol hill. questions revolved around allegations of the irs targeted conservative groups to deny them tax-exempt status. when he wasn't testifying, he was wrestling with budget cuts imposed by congress. the irs audited 0.57% of businesses in 2014. that was the lowest rate since 2005. money being used to enforce an -- and implement the affordable care act has attributed to reduced staff on the telephone helpdesk. at one point, koskinen said agency belt-tightening might result in a miserable 2015 filing season. koskinen is no stranger to challenges. he was the acting ceo of freddie mac. his very career has included stints as deputy director of the offices in management and budget and city -- for washington d.c., overseer of the federal government's y2k efforts, and president of the u.s. soccer foundation. no amount of irs trouble is going to put koskinen

doug hughes is his name. there he is.ed at drawing attention to campaign finance reform and planning this for well over a year. >> i'm going to violate the no-fly zone nonviolently. nobody to get hurt. and i'm going to land on the capitol mall in front of the capitol building. >> his gyrocopter was removed after it was checked out by a bomb squad. he was arrested without incident. charges now ending. many are now wondering how he was able to get so close to the capitol without being detected. >> now to an investigation. investors from overseas told they could get a fast track to a green card for a price. behind the scheme a man with close ties to the white house. here's abc's brian ross. >> reporter: it was pitched with great fanfare as a way to help new orleans recover. in this promotional video, investors overseas were told their money would go primarily for a multimillion dollar hotel and conference center that would create scores of new jobs. >> the number one concern of this investment is to create jobs. >> reporter:

saying hughes flew under the radar, literally. no way was doug hughes secret about his plans. in fact the secret service questioned him about his preparations for this bold stunt in 2013. jim acosta cnn's senior white house correspondent. jim, why wasn't this man's flight stopped? >> reporter: well jake a lot flies under the radar in washington as you know and this gyro copter incident is prompting new security concerns across the nation's capitol, es especially at the white house. security you upgrade are sorely needed on both sides of pennsylvania avenue. one day after he buzzed washington in his gyro copter -- and touched down at the capitol as seen in this a.p. video, florida political activist and pilot doug hughes landed in federal court, where he may soon be grounded behind bars. hughes is now facing federal charges including violating national defense airspace in a stunt aimed at protesting campaign fund-raising. a plan he shared in advance with the "tampa bay times." >> i don't believe that the authorities are going to shoot down a 60-year-old mailman in a flying bicy

mostal worker doug hughes flew into d.c. space undetebted and he says he was out to make a political statement but in doing so he exposed major security issues. karen travers live now with more. >> reporter: good evening monica, doug hughes did not answer any questions after he left his court appearance here in washington, he just smiled as he walked away with his attorney the secret service said they had no advanced notice that doug hughes planned to fly the gyro copter up to the u.s. capitol. >> he is charged with violating restricted air space and flying an unregistered aircraft. he appeared in court in washington as questions are mounting and how he could get his copter around the no-fly zone around the nation's capital. they say it was too small too slow and too quiet to be detected. hughes told friends and family he wanted to deliver letters to lawmakers to demand changes in campaign laws. he told secret service agents a year ago. >> the secret service says they received a call at 1:00 p.m. yesterday from a reporter fr

hughes lives in the house behind me.a married father with children and had been flying gyro choppers for more than a year. yesterday he veered off his normal route to deliver a statement about campaign finance reform. perhaps no more surprised about his stunt than his neighbors. >> we were so surprised about it because he's a good man, a good neighbor. >> reporter: but his freedom flight had been in the works for some time. in fact, he alerted "the tampa bay times" last year after the secret service interviewed him about his plans. >> terrorists don't announce their flights before they take off, okay? terrorists don't broadcast their flight path. >> reporter: hughes recently admitted to the paper he thought the idea sounded crazy. >> no sane person would do what i'm doing. >> reporter: according to the times, his act of civil disobedience took shape more than two years ago after his son committed suicide. his grief prompted hick to take a stand on political issues he felt were important. >> we were trying to figure out w

doug hughes has been with the postal service 11 years.told the tampa bay times that he was going to do the stunt. he knew it would cost him his job. he's described by his neighbors in russ kin, florida, as a soft spoken nice guy. paper says he kept his wife and 12-year-old daughter in the dark about this but he did share his plans with at least one neighbor. >> secret service interviewed him and i last year. he wanted to do something that was spectacular. i was against it from the beginning and to the end because i knew how dangerous it was. >> in one video, hughes said he's not suicidal. he didn't think authorities would open fire on him. he claimed he was defenseless saying a boy scout with a bb gun could shoot him down. stay with us here at abc news all day as we uncover new details about hewes and the security breach. look for updates on america this morning and later on good morning america. >> former nfl star aaron hernandez will spend the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of first degree murder. jurors decided he was

thank you so much. >> hughs will be -- hughes will be required back in dc on may 8. >>> some big questions tonight about how hughes could fly his gyrocopter in to some of the most heavily defended air space anywhere. that he literally flew right under the radar. and that they never scrambled. overlooking the national mall with that part of the story. >> yeah, derek. the head of the police union says that it is also just a huge intelligence failure that they had talked to this guy before. and very late in the game, they say that they alerted both of the police and the secret service that he was coming. but somehow that nobody would try to stop him. low and slow and below the level of radar that they have relied on, he was able to fly right past the secret service snipers on the white house roof. >> and land in front of the capitol. >> i don't believe that the authorities are going to shoot down a 60-year-old mailman. >> reporter: but apparently no one even contemplated shooting him down because they never saw him coming. >> if this wasn't detected, all the other conversations are irrelevant

. >> douglas hughes says he meant no harm when he landed his tiny helicopter in dc. aboard this machine right there, it is special delivery hundreds of letters addressed to every member of congress about campaign finance corruption. >> change the government to build a wall of separation between the government and big money so the government will represent the people. >> according to the tampa bay times hughes had this plan in place for several months. >> the secret service knew about this. they had interviewed him and a co-worker a year ago. >> the feds never followed up so hughes went ahead with his plan flying through no-fly zones with absolutely no problem. police and bomb squads moved in within a minute of landing. officials say had he got any closer he would have been shot down. perhaps the most disturbing of all of this is the u.s. military says it was unaware an aircraft had thrownflown into the restricted airspace only found out once hughes was on the ground. yesterday's stunt raising serious concerns about capitol security. hughes freedom flight is the lates

doug hughes is his name.ention was to deliver a message to washington about big money in politics and government corruption. instead he's sparked a whole new conversation about the state of homeland security in this country. coming up a little bit later on the "today" show we'll talk to two men. one a journalist and another a close friend of hughes. both of whom were aware of this stunt. what turned into the unprecedented stunt before it happened. we'll hear from some law enforcement experts about some of the questions now being raised about what needs to be done to better secure our home right here in the capital. back to you. >> peter alexander, thank you. >>> and a live look at the white house this morning where new security changes could be approved today. the i-team's scott macfarlane broke this on twitter. it calls for steel spikes to be added to the top of the fence outside the white house. the change is in response to the frightening incident where a man-mademan made it over the fence and through the

secret service has interviewed hughes about his plans in 203.ughes talked about it with friend and he even made this rid yes for tampa bay times. >> i will violate the in fly zone non-violently and for nobody to get hurt and i will london the capitol mall report report hughes was delivering 535 letters to congress, urging them to take up campaign finance reform. members of the congress has not yet received those letters. a all of the letters though had the proper postage. reporting live from washington edward lawrence, new back to you, ukee and erika. >> very bizarre. >> thanks, edward, appreciate it. >>> 6:37. hopes are high as we enter spring real estate season after a number of last year and a half housing market is poised to show some real improvement. >> cbs news business analyst jill schlesinger joins us to show us where an unlikely boost could come from. hi jill how are you doing good morning. >> good morning. >> what is going for the the housing market this spring. >> we've got a great combination, underlying strength in the labor market

so again, what we have learned tonight basically is that hughes is locked up here in d.c. and that even though the secret service agents knew of him and of his plan as far back as a year and a half ago, they say they were not alerted that he was on his way here and on his way right here behind me to the u.s. capitol. reporting live on capitol hill chris lawrence news4. back to you. >>> developing tonight, fairfax county police looking for potential victims after arresting their own public information officer on charges of child pornography. officer bud walker is charged tonight with possessing and the intent to distribute child porn. walker has been a spokesman for fairfax county police for the last six years. investigators were led to walker by a tip from a blogging site. according to police that cite said child porn had been uploaded to its servers from a home in fairfax county. officers determined that home was owned by walker. >> this matter is disappointing to all of us including all of the members of the fairfax county police department who put their lives on the lin

doug hughes is scheduled to make his appearance at 1:30 this afternoon. he's facing charges for flying into restricted airspace. that's sparking more questions about security in our area. senator ron johnson chairs the homeland security committee. he's issued this statement just a little while ago. he says "i am deeply concerned that someone has the ability to fly for over an hour through the most restricted airspace in our country and land on the lawn of the capitol. i'm investigating this incident and requesting a full accounting by all federal organizations entrusted with securing the united states with from this and similar events. news 4's derek ward will have much more on hughes and what the secret service may have known at 11:15. >>> a live look at the white house this morning where new security changes could be approved today. the i team's scott macfarlane broke this story on twitter. the security plan calls for steel spikes to be added to the top of the fence outside the

the secret service interviewed hughes in 2013 on a tip concluding he did not pose a threat. the flight wednesday is not a surprise to everyone. he told the "tampa bay times" about list plan and let the paper shoot the video, which admits it is a stunt. he said he is willing to risk his life to the corrupting power of money in politics. >> i'm going to violate the no-fly zone. nonviolently. i intend for nobody to get hurt and i will land on the capitol mall in front of the capitol building. i'll have 535 letters strapped to the landing gear in boxes. those letters will be addressed to every member of congress. >> hughes has now been transferred to d.c. central jail awaiting charges. it is a gyro copter. there are about 65 internal memos. a helicopter is powered by a top motor rotor. >> a john berman fact check. >> we have a whole department that distinguishes. >>> tensions are flaring between two allys in the middle east. abadi criticized the saudis for the air strikes in yemen against the houthis. he says there is no logic. saudi insist there is is no logic to the prime mini

jeff: hughes claimed he had no violent intent and has been likened to a little p.t. barnum and a little paul revere but his implausible flight has raised too many post-9/11 red flags at the nation's capitol. >> any time you have anybody coming in under radar, it's a concern. jeff: hughes readily admits he knew he may be shot out of the sky at any time especially when approaching washington, d.c. he said, "no sane person would be doing what i'm doing." i'm jeff barne reporting live from capitol hill. back to you, alison and leon? leon: a warm welcome for some military veterans today. president obama and vice president joe biden high fived participants at the eighth annual wounded warrior project soldier ride as they showed up at the white house there. you can see that scene, great scene, isn't it? helps out the wounded warriors restoring their physical and emotional well being. >> we've got extraordinary military families who support you every single mile so we are among heroes here today. leon: cycling raises awareness of veterans who deal with the effects of war. al

hughes talked about it with friends.even made this video for the tampa bay times. >> i'm going to violate the no- fly zone, nonviolently, for nobody to get hurt, and i'm going to land on the capital mall. >> reporter: hughes was delivering 535 letters to congress urging them to take up campaign finance reform. edward lawrence for cbs news, capitol hill. . >>> george lucas found a unique way to get payback on his neighbors. three years ago he ran into opposition from his wealthy rural marin neighbors when he tried to expand his skywalker ranch studios so he decided to put in a 224-home housing community for seniors, teachers and retirees. he said he will personally pick who gets to live there. >> george lucas said if i'm not going to do what i want to do there, what can i do that would really be beneficial to this community? >> lucas has had problems with his other big plans. his $700 million museum at san francisco presidio fell flat with trustees and his bid to build it in chicago is hitting rough waters, as well. >>> a

hughes, he was walking the streets outside of the federal courthouse. it was not clear how he intended to get home to florida, but the judge made it clear he was to go nowhere near the white house or the capitol. hughes walked out of federal court free on his own recognizance, just one day after landing his gyrocopter on the west lawn of the capital. it is not the outcome people had expected. >> i think they should keep him locked up. roz: the 61 year old florida mailman appeared in court in his postal uniform to hear the charges against him, two felonies for operating an unregistered aircraft and violating national defense airspace. prosecutors say that hughes knew exactly what he was doing when he flew out of an uncontrolled airport in gettysburg, planning to send a political message. the judge ordered hughes on home detention in tampa, not to operate aircraft, and to stay out of d.c. people are unnerved. >> scary at the fact he flew through the no-fly zone, was not detected. roz: the senate homeland security chairman said he is investigating. >> we k

tom: that's alena hughes, the wife of the gyrocopter pilot calling her husband a patriot. alena is from belarus and married doug 13 days ago. she spoke with reporters while sitting next to her lawyer. >> my reaction, it's difficult to explain my reaction. i was shock. my hands shake. tom: after driving his gyrocopter up from the couple's home in florida, on wednesday doug hughes took off from an airport in gettysburg, flew into d.c.'s restricted airspace and landed on the west lawn of capitol. he said he wanted to deliver letters to members of congress asking for campaign finance reform. alena says she supports her husband but this has been tough. the couple has a 12-year-old daughter. >> i need to support my daughter and i need to explain to her what happened because i was really worried her reaction. >> she was traumatized too. tom: as for the gyrocopter doug hughes flew to the capitol alena says she bought it two years ago and she did not support the purchase. she said she did not think it was a good use of the family's money. reporting live outside the capitol, abc 7 n

doug hughes told reporters that he expected to be stopped by authorities with sirens and guns. instead he was greeted by waving tourists. hughes is now back home with his family in florida and says he kept his wife and 11-year-old daughter in the dark about the flight but now has their full support. >> i was just down right proud. he's a patriot, you know? he did it for the country. >> it was intended to be a plan where only i took the risk. but it was very lonesome. >> hughes is due back in court next month for the stunt intended to promote campaign finance reform. he says at no point did he feel that it wasn't a good idea. we'll hear much more from the pilot doug hughes in an interview with george stephanopoulos later on "good morning america." >> now to the tragedy at sea. hundreds of migrants believed to have died off libya when their ship overturned en route to italy, it overturned in the mediterranean. one survivor says there may have been 950 people on board including some who had been locked in the hold by smugglers. the italian prime minister is calling for a european

. >> reporter: tonight, gyrocopter pilot doug hughes is grounded, back with his family in florida. >> i was in shock. >> reporter: his wife and 11-year-old daughter speaking out about their dad's dangerous stunt, what he calls an act of civil disobedience protesting campaign financing. >> i was just downright proud. he's a patriot, you know? he did it for the country. >> reporter: hughes shared his plan with a local reporter but his family knew nothing about it. >> it was intended to be a plan where only i took the risk, i was very lonesome. >> reporter: the 61-year-old mailman now delivering new details about the trip. >> at no point did i feel this was not a good idea. >> reporter: revealing he took off from gettysburg, pennsylvania, flying 80 miles through maryland, straight into washington, d.c., using landmarks like the world war ii memorial and washington monument to navigate. hughes says he was surprised he actually made it to the capitol. >> i had expected to be intercepted on the way. >> reporter: if hughes had been detected flying through restricted airspace, scrambled fight

on board hughes had a special delivery. he's a mailman from tampa, florida, and he had letters that were addressed to every single member of congress that he planned to deliver himself. these letters address his frustration by campaign finance reform and corruption. he causes quickly arrested. how in the world demanage to get through that supposedly secure area? turns out hughes had been planning this for a couple of years. he wasn't trying to hide his plans. even the secret service knew about it and interviewed hughes last year. iews also tipped off several -- hughes also tipped off several news organizations including us but a reporter with the tampa bay times actually met with him. first i'm going to play part of our interview from the tampa bay times and then you'll hear from the pilot himself. >> at that time he had a very detailed plan about trying to bring attention to his pet political issue which is something nobody pays attention to. your eyes glaze over when you hear campaign finance reform. >> but i will tell yo

it come from hughes himself. and he clearly could have been killed and not just in a crash of this mini chopper. here's some video of his arrest. lawmakers say capitol police had at least one rifleman on the balcony set to shoot this pilot if it looked like the small chopper would strike the capitol building but it didn't. it appears this was not a terrorist attack. instead a protest. hughes who is a 61-year-old florida postal worker put up an elaborate website announcing his plans which he call civil disobedience. he said i have no violent inclinations or swenltintent. just delivering the mail. and he had 535 letters, one addressed to every member of congress. to galvanize millions of people to change the government. that was his dream. he said i don't believe that the authorities are going to shoot down a 60-year-old mailman in a flying bicycle but i would rather die in the flight than live to be 80 years old and see this country fall. hughes charges that our electoral process is corrupt. he says there's too mu

hughes. it was estimated to be approximately 100 feet off the ground and traveling eeved. the officer made a request to contact the united states capitol police. a patrol supervisor confirmed the observation and requested the park police dispatch center notify the park police aviation unit which contacted the coordination center to ront an aircraft in restricted air space. another park police officer observed and followed the aircraft eastbound until it landed on the west grounds of the capitol. the police officer arrived and observed the police arresting mr. hughes. at that time the park police became an assist ping agency to the park police on the scene and at their command post. this concludes my statement. i will be pleased to respond to any questions you and any other members may now have. >> thank you. >> mr. chairman, ranking member cummings, members of the committee, good morning. and thank you for the opportunity to discuss the event that occurred on wednesday, april 15 and the actio

but none stopped what hughes once described as a flying bicycle. who should be in charge of that restricted air space ultimately? >> we've got a well-coordinated federal response to dealing with issues of those who penetrate the restricted air space. without permission. >> reporter: secret service, military, capitol police. >> a well-coordinated response. >> reporter: the u.s. no longer flies fighter jets 24/7 over d.c. like after 9/11. but a senior military official tells nbc's jim miklaszewski even if jets were already in the air, they would have been ineffective against such a small, slow-flying target. after getting a head's up from hughes "tampa bay times" reporter ben montgomery drove to washington to watch, but the secret service says the paper never alerted authorities. >> that's not my job to pull the plug on somebody doing something like this. >> reporter: today the white house even weighed in. press secretary josh earnest saying this episode has prompted security teams to re-evaluate their security measures throughout the nation's capita

. >> reporter: gyrocopter pilot doug hughes is grounded, back with his family in florida. >> i was in shock. >> reporter: his wife and 11-year-old daughter speaking out about their dad's dangerous stunt, what he calls an act of civil disobedience protesting campaign financing. >> i was just downright proud. he's a patriot, you know? he did it for the country. >> reporter: though hughes shared his plan with a local reporter, but he says his family knew nothing about it. >> it was intended to be a plan where only i took the risk, it was very lonesome. >> reporter: the 61-year-old mailman now delivering new details about the trip. >> at no point did i feel this was not a good idea. >> reporter: revealing he took off from gettysburg, pennsylvania, flying 80 miles through maryland, straight into washington, d.c., using landmarks like the world war ii memorial and washington monument to navigate. hughes says he was surprised he actually made it to the capitol. >> i had expected to be intercepted on the way. >> reporter: if hughes had been detected flying through restricted airspace, scrambl

a federal judge released douglas hughes on his own reconnaissance. he was deemed not a flight risk but will wear a gps. doug hughes left a washington, d.c., courthouse a free man for now. >> did it go like you expected? >> no. >> reporter: the 61-year-old man flew his gyrocopter under radar. past the white house and washington monument before landing on the west lawn of the capitol. he's been charged with knowingly operating an unlicensed aircraft and violating national defense airspace. he faces up to four years in prison. hughes has been given home detention in florida and he's been ordered to stay out of the sky. >> they want to effectively deter people from conducting similar missions but they don't want to waste resources sending a 61-year-old man who has no violent tendencies to federal prison. >> reporter: hughes was urging congress to take up campaign reform. the content of the letters was less important than how they got here. >> the chain that's going to happen afterward is going to invoke a lot of questions by members. if you didn't detect