Volunteer Pilot Forced to Abandon Stranded Hurricane Victims After Being Threatened with Arrest for Helping Without Permission

A former officer was in the middle of a search-and-rescue mission with his teen son in North Carolina when a fire official threatened to arrest him for his efforts.

Like many Americans, Jordan Seidhom, the former head of the narcotics unit at the Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office, was overwhelmed by the thousands of people begging to be rescued after Hurricane Helene devastated the country's Southeast region.

Unlike most, however, Seidhom had a helicopter and experience volunteering with the Sandhills Volunteer Fire Department in Pageland, South Carolina.

According to Queen City News, Seidhom and his teen son loaded their chopper with food and water, got clearance to fly over the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, met with law enforcement officers and first responders to coordinate their rescue, then started retrieving stranded residents.

After rescuing four people, Seidhom and his son slept in a pilot lounge. The next morning, Seidhom said he woke up to dozens of messages with people asking him to rescue their friends and family members.

The duo found a woman waving her arms and stopped to rescue her and her husband from their crumbling driveway, according to KSNW. To avoid the driveway giving way beneath their weight, Seidhom left his son with the husband and flew the woman to a rescue area three minutes away.

Seidhom was leaving to pick up his co-pilot and the victim when he was stopped by the chief of the Lake Lure Fire Department and forbidden from getting back into his helicopter because he was "interfering" with the department's operation. Seidhom said he was "going back and getting [his] 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," Seidhom told KSNW.

To avoid arrest, the former law enforcement officer flew back to pick up his son and was forced to leave the victim behind. The fire chief reportedly assured him they would retrieve the man "in a few hours" despite it being a three-minute trip in Seidhom's helicopter.

Seidhom later learned a Temporary Flight Restriction had been called over Lake Lure around the time he attempted to rescue the couple.

The duo flew home with his co-pilot to Pageland, South Carolina, and discontinued their rescue efforts.

But just for the day. After the restriction was lifted, Seidhom and his son loaded the chopper and took off again. They started working with the Carolina Emergency Response Team, which has "provided hundreds, if not thousands, of gallons of fuel to private helicopter pilots helping in the rescue and relief effort."

Seidhom told KSNW he "absolutely" thinks the fire chief's decision to ground him and other private pilots on Sunday put lives at risk.

"I can only imagine what the people were thinking. You've been stranded for 24, 36 hours. No way to speak with anyone, you don't know what's going on, and you see a lifeline fly over and they keep going," Seidhom said. "I can only imagine what they were thinking."

Seidhom said if he could do it again, he "would have rescued as many people until they decided they were going to arrest" him.