Firefighter threatened with arrest in NC after using own helicopter to rescue hurricane victims as Biden-Harris admin restricts private flights, drones over affected areas

A South Carolina volunteer firefighter was threatened with arrest after he used his own helicopter to assist with rescue efforts in western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene’s devastating impact on the area. This comes as the Biden-Harris administration's Department of Transportation has set up a no-fly zone for drones in the area, and issued a temporary no-fly zone for private flights.

Jordan Seidhom told Queen City News that when he woke up on Saturday, he saw a post on Facebook regarding a family stranded in Banner Elk, North Carolina. After researching the mountains where the family was located on his mapping software and finding a place to land, he loaded his helicopter with bottled water and food and headed toward the town.

"I thought, I have a helicopter, maybe I can help," Seidhom, who is also the former head of the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office narcotics unit, said. Seidhom’s son, a high school junior, also went with him, both men being volunteer firefighters with the Sandhills Volunteer Fire Department in Pageland, South Carolina. As a pilot, Seidhom has logged nearly 1,400 flight hours.

Seidhom contacted the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport’s Air Traffic Control tower for clearance to fly over the airport. Once that was given, he flew over and towards the mountains by way of Lake Lure. Landing next at the nearest airport in the Lake Lure area, Seidhom spoke with law enforcement and first responders to coordinate communications channels and find out where help was needed. He lifted off in the direction of Black Mountain, making four rescues.

The father and son woke up on Sunday morning after sleeping in a pilot lounge at a nearby airport to social media and text messages as well as phone calls from people pleading for help. Seidhom and his son made the decision to go back out on Sunday to assist in recovery efforts, heading through the mountain gap in Lake Lure.

“As we were flying by, my son actually spotted a lady waving for help. And I asked him, I said, ‘Hey, is she waving for help or she just waving?’ He said, ‘No, I think she’s waving for help.’”

They checked for power lines and trees that may be in the way, and landed on the couple’s destroyed driveway. After coming up with a gameplan, Seidhom loaded the wife into the helicopter and left his son there, fearing placing too much weight on the deteriorating driveway. "I originally left my son, copilot, on the side of the mountain. It was kind of unstable, so I didn’t want to put more weight on the helicopter to lift back off. So, I left my son with the other victim. And I was just going to take one person down at the time," Seidhom said.

He landed after a three-minute flight at a parking lot at Boys Camp Road and Memorial Highway. “Once we landed where emergency personnel were, I was met by a fire chief or maybe a captain, and he asked me who I was. I told him who I was, who I was with, just a local volunteer,” Seidhom said. The man was from an out-of-state fire department who’d traveled to North Carolina to assist in the rescue efforts, Seidhom said.

After talking with the official about his background, Seidhom said “in the middle of the whole conversation and them blocking the road off, I was greeted by the – at that time I didn’t know – but the Lake Lure fire chief, or assistant chief, maybe. And he shut down the whole operation.”

Seidhom said the Lake Lure official asked who he was, and Seidhom gave him the same information he had given the out-of-state fire official. "His response was, if you have that kind of experience, you should know that you should be coordinating with us. And I said, I’ve been coordinating with everybody as I’ve been here just the day before, speaking with local law enforcement, other rescue personnel."

The official ordered Seidhom to leave and not come back. However, Seidhom’s son and the woman’s husband were still stranded.

“If that’s what you want us to do, we’ll leave no issue. And I explained to him that I left my son on the side of the mountain, and I left another victim. I was going to go back and bring them, it was already set up for the landing spot and then I would get out of his area. He told me I wasn’t going to go back up the mountain to get them, I was going to leave them there.”

When asked for a specific reason he was ordering the stop of the rescue effort, the official said "you’re interfering with my operation." Seidhom said that the official told him to report to Rutherford County Airport and wait for the Federal Aviation Administration to meet with him.

“I’m going back and getting my copilot. He said, ‘If you turn around and go back up the mountain, you’re going to be arrested.’ I said, ‘Well, sir, I’m going back to get my copilot, I don’t know what to tell you.'” The official then called over two officers and again threatened arrest.

“At that point, I had to make a decision. I have a victim, I have my son, and I politely asked the officers, told him the situation again, explained everything, told them who I’d been coordinating with, and I said, ‘Hey if I go back up and get this victim and bring him down to this landing spot that other emergency personnel have designated, am I going to be arrested? And the officers’ response was, ‘Man, I really don’t know what to do in this situation.'"

The out-of-state fire chief and captain spoke with Seidhom before he took off, and he recalled them as saying, "Hey, man, we can’t tell you to go get the victim. We can’t even ask you to go get the victim, but we can tell you if you come back with the victim, we’ll have you a designated landing spot and we’ll make sure they don’t come over here."

Seidhom got back into his helicopter and took off in the direction of his son and the rescued woman’s husband. When he arrived he explained what happened at the airport. He picked up his son but had to leave the husband behind on the mountain side. The father and son reported to the airport, but FAA officials never came. "I did leave the Rutherford Airport. I knew at that point he had no jurisdiction, I was legal in what I was doing, and I was following all FAA guidelines and airspace guidelines. I was on private property."

Seidhom said that within a half hour of the threat of arrest, a Temporary Flight Restriction was set up over the Lake Lure gap, where he had been conducting rescue efforts. The father and son flew home, calling off their efforts. On Monday though, that temporary restriction was lifted, and Seidhom threw food and water into his helicopter and headed back to Lake Lure and joined up with the Carolina Emergency Response Team, which has called for private helicopters to help in efforts.

A no-fly zone for drones have been set up in multiple areas of North Carolina by the FAA. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that temporary flight restrictions have been set up for drones and flights to allow for "flights or drone activity that might be involved in helping to allow those emergency responders to do their job.

Thank you for referencing that article Red Badger.

"Firefighter threatened with arrest in NC after using own helicopter to rescue hurricane victims as Biden-Harris admin restricts private flights, drones over affected areas [??? emphasis added]"

FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument

Although federal relief from natural disasters would arguably be the best invention since sliced bread, it remains that the states have never expressly constitutionally given the very corrupt, post-17th Amendment ratification feds the specific power to either provide relief from natural disasters, or to regulate air traffic.

Note that the Wright Brothers' first airplane was invented long after Constitution was ratified, the neglected Constitution never appropriately amended for regulating peacetime flying machines.

But more importantly imo, consider that misguided activist President Woodrow Wilson is the one who signed Congress's National Emergency Bill into law, the unconstitutional law (imo) giving presidents the first-time, constitutionally indefensible unilateral power to declare national emergencies, POTUS not even having express constitutional power to declare war.

Also note that troubled times as a consequence of WWI gave Wilson the politically correct excuse to sign National Emergency Act.

"Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, acting under and by virtue of the authority conferred in me by said Act of Congress, do hereby declare and proclaim that I have found that there exists a national emergency [...]" —Proclamation 1354—Emergency in Water Transportation of the United States (non-FR)
Merchant Marine Act of 1916 (Alexander Act) (non-FR)
List of national emergencies in the United States (non-FR)
”I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” —James Madison, Speech at the Virginia Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution (1788-06-06)
”The system of the General Government is to seize all doubtful ground. We must join in the scramble, or get nothing. Where first occupancy is to give right, he who lies still loses all.” —Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1797.

Think of unconstitutional federal relief for victims of Helene as reparations for victims paying unconstitutional federal taxes for the last 100+ years.

As for the rest of us, we'll get our reparations when the new Congress that we support Trump with on Election Day supports hopeful Trump 47 in leading the states to repeal the 16th (direct taxes) and 17th (popular voting for federal senators) Amendments.

"16th Amendment : The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived [emphasis added], without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration."
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
"The power to regulate manufactures is no more confided to congress, than the power to interfere with the systems of education, the poor laws, or the road laws of the states [emphasis added]." —Justice Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution 2, 1833.
The congressional record shows that Rep. John Bingham, a constitutional lawmaker, had clarified the federal government's constitutionally limited powers as follows.
”Simply this, that the care of the property, the liberty, and the life of the citizen, under the solemn sanction of an oath imposed by your Constitution, is in the States and not in the federal government [emphases added]. I have sought to effect no change in that respect in the Constitution of the country.” —John Bingham, Congressional. Globe. 1866, page 1292 (see top half of third column)
"From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added]." —United States v. Butler, 1936.

Since Congress and renegade states have repeatedly proven that they are enemies of the people imo, evidenced by Congress's failure to impeach and remove Mayorkas from office because of failed, politically correct open border policy, it is now up to Democratic and Republican Trump supporters to effectively "impeach and remove" ALL (exceptions?) state and federal lawmakers and executives in November.

In fact, it's up to us Trump supporters to take the first MAJOR step in draining the swamp by supporting hopeful Trump 47 with a new, Constitution-respecting Congress, new state lawmakers too, not only so that he will not be a lame duck president from the first day of his second term, but will support him to quickly finish draining the swamp.

Finally, let's not allow the anti-Trump media try to fade our memories of what we witnessed on July 13.

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