Entry #17 - Apr 15th, 2015

Man taken into custody after landing a single-person aircraft on Capitol grounds

Apr 15th, 2015

By: Johnny Yu

CNN News

On Wednesday a small manned aircraft landed on the west front of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Police have taken the pilot into custody. The President also has been briefed on the situation according to White House spokesman, Eric Schultz.

The pilot is a mailman from Florida who planned the flight to protest the Supreme Court decisions in Citizens' United case and the influence of outside money in politics. He told the Tampa Bay Times that he wanted to deliver a mail to lawmakers outlining his complaints.

The Capitol Police have not yet disclosed the pilot's identity. They were questioning him in custody and trying to find out whether the landing was a mechanical issue or something else.

A friend who have known the pilot for years said "there's nothing on the helicopter that is dangerous". He also said that the flight was meat to send a message to Congress about campaign finance reform.

My Thoughts & Opinion

The unexpected landing that the pilot did on Capitol grounds was extremely foolish. I understand that the pilot was worried about his country and wanted to deliver his own message, but landing outside of U.S. Capitol would not only get yourself in trouble, the message you wanted to deliver would probably get taken away by the police. That pilot should really thought about the consequences before he decided to do the landing.