Robert K. Preston

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Robert K. Preston (born c. 1954) is an American infamous for landing a helicopter on the White House lawn.

At 2 A.M. On February 17, 1974, Preston, a U.S. Army private, stole a United States Army helicopter from Fort Meade, Maryland, flew it to Washington, D.C., and hovered for six minutes over the White House before descending on the south lawn, about 100 yards from the West Wing. There was no initial attempt from the Executive Protective Service to shoot the helicopter down, and he later took off and was chased by two Maryland State Police helicopters. Preston forced one of the police helicopters down through his maneuvering of the helicopter, and then returned to the White House. This time, as he hovered above the south grounds, the Executive Protective Service fired at him with shotguns and submachine guns. Preston was injured slightly, and landed his helicopter.

At the time of the incident, President Richard Nixon was travelling in Florida, and First Lady Pat Nixon was in Indianapolis, Indiana visiting their sick daughter.

Preston was a 20-year-old Private First Class in the U.S. Army, stationed in Panama City, Florida. Although he was training to become a helicopter pilot, he abandoned the training due to "deficiency in the instrument phase."

It has been suggested that news reports of Preston's actions inspired Samuel Byck to attempt to crash a passenger airplane into the White House on February 22, 1974 (for instance by the 2004 film dramatization of Byck's attempt, The Assassination of Richard Nixon).