The Tampa Bay Times alerted the Capitol Police and Secret Service of a man's plan to fly a small helicopter onto the Capitol Grounds around 1p.m. on Wednesday, about thirty minutes ahead of the small gyrocopter landing on the West lawn of the Capitol grounds.
According to Politico, Tampa Bay Times Managing Editor Jennifer Orsi said in a statement that the man, 61-year-old postal worker Doug Hughes, had reached out to reporter Ben Montgomery earlier this year about his plans to fly the small helicopter onto the Capitol grounds in order to raise awareness about the need for campaign finance reform. Montgomery and a video team reported on the man's attempt and prepared a profile to be published as the man took off.
"Shortly after noon today, when we saw Hughes take off via his livestream feed, we posted a story on tampabay.com that Montgomery had written about Hughes and his plan. We also saw Hughes’ website go live identifying himself and giving details of his plan. We reported extensively and publicly about our story and the flight on social media including Twitter and Facebook. At about 1 p.m. we called the Capitol Police and Secret Service to ask whether they were aware that a man was flying toward the Capitol in a gyrocopter and ask for comment. We posted their response on our website. At approximately 1:30, Hughes landed," Orsi said in the statement.
According to the Tampa Bay Times piece, a friend of Hughes had alerted the Secret Service that Hughes was planning a stunt, and agents had already interviewed Hughes twice before.
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