Helicopter pilot threatened with arrest after flying rescue missions in flood-ravaged NC

A South Carolina pilot who flew stranded Hurricane Helene victims in flood-ravaged North Carolina to safety claims he was told he would be arrested if he continued the rescue missions.Jordan Seidhom was flying victims out of the devastation over the weekend when local leaders told him there was a flight restriction on the area and that they would have to arrest him if he continued making flights.

“There were other victims.As we were flying out leaving the area, we spotted within 300, 400 yards of their location [people] were waving for help as my son and I were leaving,” Seidhom told Queen City News.

After the storm wreaked havoc on the region, leaving hundreds of people stranded as complete roadways washed away, Seidhom read about a family that was stranded without water on a mountain in Banner Elk, a ski town heavily battered by the storm, and knew he had to take action.“I thought, I have a helicopter, maybe I can help,” he told the outlet.Seidhom, who once led the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office narcotics unit, and his teenage son Landon, flew out bottled water and food to the family on Saturday and decided they would set out to find other people in need of help.The father and son, both volunteer firefighters, flew four victims to safety on Saturday, including two women stranded at the top of a mountain and two vacationers trapped inside their Airbnb.

“They only had one day of supplies, which was gone by Saturday.They didn’t have any food, water, no running water, no power.

And we were coming back this direction anyway, so we actually took them to Charlotte-Douglas Airport and they were able to fly home from there,” Seidhom said.After sleeping in recliners in a pilot lounge at a nearby airport, the father and son went back out on Sunday and found a husband and wife who waved them down from their partially washed-away home.Only equipped with his small helicopter, Seidhom had his son exit the aircraft to make room for the wife, who he flew...