A helicopter pilot in North Carolina was threatened with arrest after carrying out voluntary rescues of people stranded in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
Jordan Seidhom sprang into action on Saturday after seeing a Facebook post about a family in Banner Elk who were running out of food and water. The small town was one of the hardest hit by Helene.
Seidhom is a Class 1 certified law enforcement officer and a pilot with nearly 1,400 flight hours. Along with his son, he is also a member of the Sandhills Volunteer Fire Department in Pageland, South Carolina.
“I thought, I have a helicopter, maybe I can help,” Seidhom told local station, WJZY.
After getting clearance from local airports to fly through the airspace towards Lake Lure, an area devastated by Helene, the pair sought to locate those stranded, and rescued six people.
The next day, September 29, the Seidhoms were inundated with messages on social media with requests from other people with stranded relatives.