Autogyro pilot nearly collided with passenger jet, prosecutors say

A Florida man who flew an autogyro through protected Washington airspace before landing outside the US Capitol last spring was seconds away from colliding with a Delta flight that had taken off from Reagan National Airport, prosecutors said.

In a court filing on Friday, prosecutors said Douglas Hughes flew his one-person aircraft almost directly into the oncoming flight path of the Airbus turbojet carrying 150 people last April. Hughes came within 1,280 metres of Delta Flight 1639, while safety rules require aircraft to remain separated by more than 2,740 metres.

“If the gyrocopter had drifted slightly west, or the airline had taken a slightly more easterly path, a collision could have occurred,” prosecutors said. Such a collision could have been “catastrophic”, they added.

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Hughes, who agreed to a plea deal in November, is set to be sentenced April 13. Prosecutors are asking for 10 months in prison, arguing the former mail carrier from Ruskin, Florida, put countless lives at risk.

Hughes’ attorneys say they don’t think he should have to serve any more time behind bars, noting that no one was injured and no property was damaged. Hughes spent one night in jail after the stunt, served five weeks in home confinement and had this travel privileges restricted for nearly a year.

Mark Goldstone, an attorney for Hughes, said they will look into the government’s claim about the Delta flight. But he questioned why prosecutors are now saying Hughes flew closer to the plane than they previously reported.

“It seems suspicious that on the eve of sentencing, all of a sudden his flight was about to blow up a commercial airliner,” Goldstone said Saturday.