A helicopter pilot in North Carolina says he was threatened with arrest after conducting volunteer rescue missions for people stranded in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Jordan Seidhom began flying rescue missions on Saturday after seeing a Facebook post about a family in Banner Elk who were running low on food and water. Banner Elk was among the communities hardest hit by the storm.
Seidhom is a Class 1 certified law enforcement officer with nearly 1,400 flight hours. He and his son are also members of the Sandhills Volunteer Fire Department in Pageland, South Carolina.
After receiving clearance from local airports to fly through restricted airspace toward Lake Lure, another area severely impacted by the hurricane, Seidhom and his son located and rescued six stranded individuals.
The following day, Sept. 29, Seidhom said he received numerous messages on social media from people seeking help for relatives trapped in remote or damaged areas.
The pair were alerted to a couple stranded on a crumbling driveway near Lake Lure. Concerned about weight limits, Seidhom left his son with the husband on the mountainside and flew the woman to safety.
After landing near the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge, Seidhom said he met with emergency personnel in a nearby parking lot. He identified himself as a volunteer and explained his background in law enforcement, firefighting and aviation.
According to Seidhom, one official began coordinating with him, providing radio frequencies and establishing a landing zone to retrieve the remaining stranded man.
However, Seidhom said another official, whom he later learned was a Lake Lure fire department leader, intervened and shut down the operation.
Seidhom said the official told him he was interfering with official rescue efforts and threatened him with arrest if he continued flying in the area.
“He said, ‘If you turn around and go back up the mountain, you’re going to be arrested,’” Seidhom said. He responded that he needed to return to retrieve his son.
Seidhom said the official called over two law enforcement officers and repeated the threat, instructing him instead to proceed to Rutherford County Airport and wait for Federal Aviation Administration officials.
Seidhom returned to the mountain to pick up his son but informed the stranded husband that officials said he would be rescued within a few hours.
The man, later identified as Michael Coffey, wrote on Facebook that he ultimately swam across a river to safety with the couple’s cat, Cleo, assisted by an EMT crew from Michigan. Coffey said the couple lost their river house and had spent the weekend in their car after bridges were washed away.
Seidhom said he and his son waited at the airport for three hours, but no FAA officials arrived. He added that within about 30 minutes of the arrest threat, a Temporary Flight Restriction was established over the Lake Lure area.
Following the incident, Seidhom said he believes the decision to remove volunteer pilots from the rescue zone may have put lives at risk.
“If I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t have stopped and I would have rescued as many people until they decided they were going to arrest me,” he said.
In a statement posted on the Town of Lake Lure’s official Facebook page, officials said they appreciated offers to volunteer but were working to reduce congestion in the area to maintain safety during the rescue phase of recovery.
Since the incident, the town’s social media pages have received numerous comments from residents calling for the fire chief’s dismissal and expressing frustration as they seek help for stranded friends and family members.
The situation remains a point of tension as recovery efforts continue.
