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ByMatthewDaly TheAssociatedPress WASHINGTON A small gy- rocopter that flew through miles of the nation's most restricted airspace before landing at the U.S. Capi- tol was "indistinguishable" on radar from non-aircraft such as a flock of birds, a kite or a balloon, the head of the Federal Aviation Ad- ministration said Wednes- day. FAA Administrator Mi- chael Huerta told a House committee that the slow- moving gyrocopter ap- peared as an "irregular symbol" on radar moni- tored by air traffic control- lers. Huerta and other offi- cials said the small, uniden- tified object did not pose an apparent threat before landing on the Capitol's West Lawn April 15. Forensic analysis con- ducted later identified a slow-moving object that traveled about 70 miles from Gettysburg, Pennsyl- vania, to the U.S. Capitol. Officials now believe that was the gyrocopter. A dot representing the gyrocop- ter "appeared only inter- mittently throughout the flight," Huerta said. Details about how the copter flight was tracked emerged Wednesday as questions continued two weeks after the open-air copter — described by its pilot as a "flying bicycle" — landed at the Capitol. Law enforcement agencies gave conflicting accounts about whether the copter could have been shot down and offered few answers about how the response was coor- dinated and what changes, if any, have been made in the aftermath of the inci- dent. Navy Adm. William Gortney, commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aero- space Defense Command, or NORAD, said Wednes- day that officials did not have the ability to shoot down the aircraft before it landed, contradicting tes- timony from Capitol Police Chef Kim Dine. Asked directly if the cop- ter could have been shot down, Gortney said no. "We did not have a de- tection," he told the House Oversight Committee. Dine testified earlier that Capitol police saw the copter "seconds before it landed" on the Capitol lawn and could have shot it down but chose not to do so, in part because of the poten- tial danger to tourists and other bystanders. Dine called his officers' actions "heroic" and said police "quickly approached the individual and arrested him" as soon as the copter landed. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R- Utah, chairman of the over- sight panel, said the contra- dictory testimony showed a breakdown in commu- nication among the vari- ous agencies that protect the nation's capital and its airspace. Representatives of seven agencies attended Wednesday's hearing. "It took them two weeks to try to get their story straight, but it's still in con- flict," Chaffetz said after the hearing. With so many agencies sharing responsi- bility, "Who's going to take the shot if need be?" Chaf- fetz asked. Chaffetz said he walked out of a closed-door brief- ing last week believing that Capitol police officers "had guns trained on the copter" while it was still in the air. Now, he said he is not sure. "I have real questions," he said in an interview, add- ing that he wants to speak directly with Capitol police officers involved in the inci- dent response. From what he has been told, the copter pilot "started off in the north," went over the John F. Ken- nedy Center for the Per- forming Arts, past the Lin- coln Memorial and Wash- ington Monument and into airspace surrounding the White House before land- ing on the Capitol lawn, Chaffetz said. "Unbeliev- able," he said. Gortney told the commit- tee that small aircraft such as gyrocopters represent a "technical and operational challenge" for NORAD and the military to detect and defend against. The gyrocopter incident "has further confirmed the need to continue to improve our ability to identify low- altitude and slow-speed aer- ial vehicles" operating in the skies above the nation's capital, Gortney said. Dine said police were contacted just before 1 p.m. EDT by an employee of the Tampa Bay Times, who said a local man was flying a gy- rocopter to the Capitol as a form of protest. No time or date information was pro- vided regarding the flight, Dine said. The newspaper employee later identified the pilot as Douglas Hughes and said that Hughes told the news- paper he had received per- mission for the flight from the U.S. Secret Service and Capitol Police, Dine said. No such permission was granted by either agency, according to Dine and Se- cret Service Chief Joseph Clancy, who also testified at Wednesday's hearing. The newspaper employee said Hughes was providing a live feed of the flight on his website, but officials were unable to find the feed if it existed, Dine said. At 1:21 p.m., just before the landing, a reporter ap- proached a Capitol police officer and asked if he had seen a "helicopter" yet, Dine testified. He was told no. The vehicle landed at 1:23 p.m. "The extremely short time frame" between a lock- down order issued after the gyrocopter was identified and the vehicle's landing made it impossible to no- tify members of Congress in advance, Dine said. Paul Irving, the House Sergeant at Arms, said he has ordered Dine to use an official notification sys- tem to alert lawmakers, staff and visitors of "events that could potentially be a threat" to the Capitol. Capitol police notified senators but not House members of the lockdown, Irving said. "I have ordered the chief never to allow this to happen again," he said, referring to the lapse in no- tification. Hughes, 61, of Florida, was arrested upon landing and charged with violat- ing restricted airspace and operating an unregistered aircraft. His next court ap- pearance is May 8. Chaffetz has said that Hughes is "lucky to be alive" and "should have been blown out of the air." A combination of "lack of communication and some human error" by Capitol police and other officials al- lowed Hughes to steer his tiny aircraft across 30 miles of restricted airspace to within a few hundred feet of the Capitol before land- ing on the West Lawn, Chaf- fetz said. RADAR FAA chief: small Gyrocopter is 'indistinguishable' from birds, kite ANDREWHARNIK—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE A member of a bomb squad approaches a small helicopter a er it landed on the West Lawn of the Capitol in Washington. By Rachel D'Oro The Associated Press ANCHORAGE, ALASKA Three men have been ac- cused of stabbing a young moose to death at a pop- ular park in Alaska's larg- est city, and police said wit- nesses reported seeing the men jumping on the ani- mal, kicking it and attack- ing it with a large knife. The men were in custody Wednesday in the death of the yearling moose Tuesday night near a bike trail in Anchorage's Russian Jack Springs Park. All three were arrested on charges of ani- mal cruelty, wanton waste of big game and tampering with evidence. Witnesses called shortly before 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, and police officers quickly located the suspects nearby. The men had bloody clothes and matched the description of the suspects provided by witnesses, police said. The animal was found dead. Police said the moose had several lacerations, and tufts of hair had been pulled fromitsbody.Apolicedogand its handler later found several knives that are believed to have been used in the attack. A local charity recovered the remains of the moose to salvage the meat, accord- ing to police spokeswoman Anita Shell. Moose are a common sight in Anchorage, and on rare occasions have charged at humans. The massive an- imals, however, generally coexist peacefully with hu- mans and their pets. Shell said she could not recall a moose attacked in the same way in her 25 years with the department. She said no motive was de- scribed in police reports on the incident. "Certainly, people have defended themselves against moose if they're being trampled," Shell said. "But I've never seen any- thing like this." The suspects were iden- tified as Johnathan Cande- lario, 25, James Galloway, 28, and Nick Johnston, 33. They were scheduled to ap- pear in court Wednesday afternoon. It was unclear if they have attorneys. Shell, a lifelong Anchor- age resident, said the only violent incident on the level of Tuesday's attack that she could recall was a local pet reindeer named Star that was kidnapped and butch- ered decades ago. In 1985, a convicted meat thief from Fairbanks stole the young reindeer from her pen, beat her to death in a field and cut her into pieces. Police were tipped that the man was bragging about the killing, and he was sen- tenced to a year in jail after pleading no contest. YEARLING Police: Moose fatally stabbed in Alaska park; 3 men arrested By Alicia A. Caldwell The Associated Press WASHINGTON The Obama administration is on pace to deport the fewest num- ber of immigrants in nearly a decade, accord- ing to internal government data obtained by The Asso- ciated Press. As of April 20, fed- eral immigration officials sent home 127,378 people in the United States il- legally. That puts immi- grant removals on track to be among the lowest since the middle of Presi- dent George W. Bush's sec- ond term. The internal statistics reveal a continuing decline in deportations even as the Obama administration fights a legal challenge to a plan it announced late last year to shield millions of immigrants from depor- tations. "With the resources we have ... I'm interested in focusing on criminals and recent illegal arrivals at the border," Homeland Se- curity Secretary Jeh John- son told members of the Senate Judiciary Commit- tee during an oversight hearing Tuesday. The new figures, con- tained in weekly inter- nal reports not publicly reported, average about 19,730 removals a month for the first six months of the government's fiscal year that began in October. If that trend contin- ues, the government will remove about 236,000 by September — the lowest figure since 2006, when 207,776 were sent home. Removals have been de- clining for nearly three years after Immigration and Customs Enforcement recorded a record 409,849 removals in 2012. That fed- eral agency, known as ICE, is responsible for finding and removing immigrants living in the country ille- gally. President Barack Obama announced a plan in November that would protect millions of immi- grants living in the coun- try illegally, but that effort is on hold after a federal judge in Texas blocked its implementation. Meanwhile, the Home- land Security Department has continued to slow re- movals, and a program launched in 2012 to pro- tect young immigrants from deportation remains in place. Johnson has directed immigration authorities anew to focus on finding and deporting immigrants who pose a national se- curity or public safety threat, those who have se- rious criminal records and those who have recently crossed the Mexican bor- der. Roughly 11 million im- migrants are thought to be living in the country ille- gally. Johnson confirmed Tuesday that removals have decreased but did not provide the commit- tee with specific num- bers. He said a variety of factors, including a corre- sponding drop in arrests of immigrants caught cross- ing the border, have led to the drop. Last week, Johnson said the Border Patrol had ar- rested about 151,800 peo- ple trying to cross the Mex- ican border illegally, the fewest number of people caught at the border dur- ing the same period over the last four years. INTERNAL GOVERNMENT DATA LAUREN VICTORIA BURKE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on oversight of the department. Immigrant removals continue to decline under Obama RUNNINGS ROOFING SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane Ownerisonsiteoneveryjob ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 NoMoney Down! "NoJobTooSteep" " No Job Too Flat" FREE ESTIMATES CA. LIC#829089 STOVEJUNCTION The TheNorthState'spremiersupplierofstoves 22825 Antelope Blvd., Red Bluff 530-528-2221 • Fax 530-528-2229 www.thestovejunction.com Over 25 years of experience Tues-Sat9am-5pm• ClosedSun&Mon Now Carrying! 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