Police arrested a Ruskin man who steered his tiny, one-person helicopter onto the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, surprising spring tourists and prompting a temporary lockdown of the Capitol Visitor Center.

Capitol Police didn't immediately identify the pilot or comment on his motive, but Doug Hughes took responsibility for the stunt on a website where he said he was delivering letters to all 535 members of Congress in order to draw attention to campaign finance corruption.

"As I have informed the authorities, I have no violent inclinations or intent," Hughes wrote on his website, thedemocracyclub.org. "An ultralight aircraft poses no major physical threat — it may present a political threat to graft. I hope so. There's no need to worry — I'm just delivering the mail."

FBI agents were at Hughes' Ruskin house Wednesday afternoon. They wouldn't say specifically what they were looking for only that they are assisting with this investigation.

Hughes has been practicing his flying skills for a while at the Wachula Municipal Airport. David Seace calls him a "natural."

"For the minimal amount of training he did, he did quite fabulous at flying,” said David Seace, a friend.

He said Hughes never told people here about his plans.

"As far as this goes, it's just unthinkable, it's unthinkable,” he said.

A close friend and co-worker of Hughes, Mike Shanahan said although Hughes had talked about pulling off this stunt for a couple years, he never thought he would go through with it. In fact, he thought he had talked him out of it a while back.

“I said it's too dangerous. They will kill you. They will shoot you down and they will imprison you and whatever pieces are there for the rest of your life,” said Shanahan.

Shanahan said this all started when he and his fellow postal worker started up a website, the Civilist Papers, a two man crusade to bring attention to campaign finance reform.

"This was about two years ago. Nothing was happening. It's like nobody really cared," he said.

That's when he said, this gyrocopter idea, took flight. Shanahan said he didn’t learn his co-worker was actually going through with it until he saw it on CNN. Shanahan said he didn’t think the stunt was worth it.

"I think it was too dangerous. I do not want him in jail," he said. “I understand what he did. It was a stupid thing, but it was also very brave and very patriotic. He wants to save this country. He wants to save our democracy and he was willing to do anything for that, including die.”

Capitol Police identified the aircraft, which landed about a half city block from the Capitol building, as a "gyro copter with a single occupant."

House Homeland Security panel Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said the pilot landed on his own, but that had he made it much closer to the Capitol authorities were prepared to shoot him down. "Had it gotten any closer to the speaker's balcony they have long guns to take it down, but it didn't. It landed right in front," McCaul said.

Witnesses said the craft approached the Capitol from the west, flying low over the National Mall and the Capitol reflecting pool across the street from the building. It barely cleared a row of trees and a statue of Gen. Ulysses Grant.

John Jewell, 72, a tourist from Statesville, North Carolina, said the craft landed hard and bounced. An officer was already there with a gun drawn. "He didn't get out until police officers told him to get out. He had his hands up'" and was quickly led away by the police, Jewell said. "They snatched him pretty fast."

Elizabeth Bevins, a tourist from Atlanta, said she was standing across the street from the Capitol when the helicopter flew in around 20 or 30 feet high, and it "just sort of plopped down on the lawn."

Downtown Washington is blanketed by restrictions on air traffic that generally prohibit aircraft from flying over the White House, the Capitol, the national Mall and key buildings without special permission.

The situation was under investigation and streets in the area were shut down. Emergency vehicles were dispatched to the area and a robot bomb detector was sent over to the craft.

Amid the commotion, the small craft presented a strange sight sitting on the green lawn of the Capitol, its rotors slowly spinning.

Reports from the Associated Press was used in this story.