Pilot Threatened With Arrest for Saving Stranded Hurricane Victims

After seeing a Facebook post about a family stranded on a mountain, Jordan Seidhom and his son set out on a rescue mission with their Robinson R44 helicopter -- at their own expense. However, local authorities quickly intervened, inexplicably threatening to arrest Seidhom if he proceeded with the operation.

A family had been trapped on a mountain in Banner Elk, North Carolina, with no water and only a few meals worth of food. Seidhom, being the former head of Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office narcotics unit and a 1,400-hour pilot, knew that he could help locate them and bring them to safety. He found a safe place to land, loaded up on supplies, and got clearance from air traffic control before setting out for the mountain.

Seidhom then left food and water for the family at a selected drop-off point.

After making his first rescue of two stranded women, Seidhom was bombarded with messages from other victims begging for help. In particular, one woman noted that she hadn’t heard from her parents since the storm.

“I can hear the desperation in her voice,” Seidhom stated. “This is multiple phone calls I’ve received like this. Voicemails, text messages and you could hear people desperate for help,”

Seidhom and his son scouted out the area for obstacles before landing on the couple’s crumbled driveway. Seidhom decided to take people down one at a time, leaving his son with the husband while he took the woman down the mountain.

Though officers seemed accepting -- and even grateful -- for Seidhom’s work at first, an official from the Lake Lure Fire Department decided to shut the operation down. Seidhom was ordered to leave the area without his son or the woman’s husband.

Despite the officer’s arrest threat, Seidhom knew he couldn’t leave his son. He returned to the mountain to pick him up, still leaving the rescued woman’s husband behind. Less than half an hour later, a TFR was issued in the area. This was lifted a day later and Seidhom jumped back into action with the Carolina Emergency Response Team.

“I’m sorry, if I had to do it over again, I would have stopped and I would have rescued as many people until they decided they were going to arrest me,” Seidhom commented.

FMI: www.townoflakelure.com