A man named Jordan Seidhom was reportedly threatened with arrest earlier this week while he was flying his personal helicopter to save Hurricane Helene victims in Lake Lure, North Carolina.
Speaking with Queen City News on Tuesday, Seidhom vented frustration about a local fire chief allegedly preventing him from saving more lives.
A father & son w/ a helicopter began rescuing ppl stranded from Hurricane Helene.
— šAdam Oš (@denverbitcoin) October 1, 2024
The Gov came in and threatened them with arrest š¤¦āāļø
Your government is incompetent + incapable of making the world a better place.
The State is efficient at 1 thing — creating inefficiencies. pic.twitter.com/2nD10UTMkj
Seidhom is a former head narcotics detective, current volunteer firefighter and helicopter pilot with 1,400 flight hours logged.
After reading a Facebook post about people in the Banner Elk area needing a helicopter in order to be rescued, Seidhom decided to load up his helicopter and head out with his co-pilot, his high school son Landon who is also a volunteer fireman.
The pilot and his son went through the proper channels to get clearance to go up the mountain and on Saturday met with “multiple law enforcement officers and first responders to coordinate communication channels with them.”
The duo saved four women on Saturday, slept at a nearby pilot’s lounge and went back at it on Sunday after being flooded with phone calls and Facebook messages from people requesting help.
While heading towards Lake Lure, Landon spotted a woman on the ground waving for help and his father landed the helicopter.
The gameplan was for Jordan Seidhom to fly the woman down the mountain, then pick up her husband and take him down, and then finally go back to pick up Landon and continue their mission.
However, when Seidhom landed near a group of first responders, one of them accused him of interfering with their efforts and threatened to have him arrested.
āOnce 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,ā Seidhom explained. “The man was from an out-of-state fire department whoād traveled to N.C. to help in the rescue efforts.”
āI told him my background experience, law enforcement, firefighting, and pilot and he immediately started helping with coordination. He gave me radio frequencies to coordinate with them on, set up a landing area for me to come back with the other victim, and just basically started the rescue efforts; the policies and procedures that you would take coordinating with someone from an outside source or outside agency.”
He continued, “And in the middle of the whole conversation and them blocking the road off, I was greeted by the ā at that time I didnāt know ā but the Lake Lure fire chief, or assistant chief, maybe. And he shut down the whole operation.ā
āHe originally asked me who I was. I gave him the same information, who I was with, my background experience, law enforcement, and firefighting. And his response was, if you have that kind of experience, you should know that you should be coordinating with us. And I said, Iāve been coordinating with everybody as Iāve been here just the day before, speaking with local law enforcement, other rescue personnel,ā Seidhom recalled.
When the pilot told the fire chief the woman’s husband and his son were still stuck up the mountain, the Lake Lure Fire Department official allegedly demanded he leave them.
Seidhom defiantly stated he’d be going back to get his son and the man reportedly threatened to arrest the father.
He told the local news, āAt 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 Iād been coordinating with, and I said, āHey 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 officer’s response was, āMan, I really donāt know what to do in this situation.ā I said, āSo you canāt tell me if Iām going to get arrested or not?ā And he said, āMan, Iām not sure what to do.’ā
The fire chief then told Seidhom to report to the Rutherford County Airport and wait for Federal Aviation Administration officials, and he first flew back to get his boy, told the woman’s stranded husband about the incident, and left the man standing on his crumbled driveway.
The father and son then flew to the Rutherford Airport as instructed and waited for three hours but no FAA officials ever appeared.
According to Seidhom, the fire department official also asked him to tell other pilots they’d be arrested if they decided to try and help out with the rescue operation.
To make the story even worse, people on the ground working to save stranded North Carolinians say the number one thing they need is more helcopters.
āTheyāre basically begging for these helicopters,ā Seidhom said
That claim appears to be factual as a viral video posted by Jonathan Howard of the Florida State Guard Special Mission Unit Wednesday also brought attention to the need for more helicopters.
Howard accused the federal government of leaving people to die while spending loads of tax dollars on everyone else around the world.
šØšØMAKE IT GO VIRAL!
— I Meme Therefore I Am šŗšø (@ImMeme0) October 2, 2024
āThey are literally allowing this people to fvcking die in the mountains right now because we canāt get helicopters.ā
Jonathan Howard with the Florida State Guard Special Mission Unit who is assisting Aerial Recovery says they desperately NEEDā¦ pic.twitter.com/EtWrkYtYc4
These horrifying testimonials combined with a report that FEMA is confiscating donations being sent to the flood victims paints a disturbing picture.
EQUITY: The Biden-Harris regime is reportedly confiscating donations made directly to Hurricane survivors. FEMAās DEI mandate requires donations be given out based on membership in a protected class. https://t.co/p661IMqdWB pic.twitter.com/XlQjVO7CXJ
— @amuse (@amuse) October 2, 2024
Is the U.S. government totally incompetent, or are the higher-ups actively trying to get these Americans killed?