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House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said Sunday that last week’s gyrocopter incident exposed a security concern around the nation’s capital.
{mosads}”It exposes a vulnerability that the terrorists, I think, can exploit,” McCaul said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I think part of the problem is these small, ultralight aircraft are very difficult to detect, can fly under the radar as this one did, or even the small UAV devices [drones], like the one we saw that was landed in the back yard of the White House. That is the real threat,” McCaul said.
“In this case, the guy was just going postal,” McCaul said on ABC, referring to the mailman who piloted the small aircraft, Doug Hughes, 61, who was said to be delivering letters to Congress.
“We’ve got bigger problems in this country than fussing about whether or not the security around D.C. is ironclad,” Hughes said Sunday morning.
“We need to be worried not about whether somebody can fly into D.C., we need to be worried about the piles of money that are going into Congress,” Hughes added.
Despite the stunt, intended to protest the influence of money in politics, McCaul suggested that landing the gyrocopter on the Capitol’s west lawn should be taken seriously.
McCaul said he met with the sergeant-at-arms after the incident, and would meet with other U.S. officials on Capitol Hill “to see what we can do to tighten up these security procedures.”
“If it’s a larger aircraft, F-16s scramble out of Andrews Air Force. And if they don’t respond, the plane doesn’t respond, the pilot – they are shot down immediately,” McCaul said.
“In this case, it was under the radar so the Capitol police, when I talked to them, said had it got any closer to the Capitol, they were prepared to shoot down the aircraft,” McCaul added.