I think the most likely answer is a small town bureaucrat had to prove that he's in charge, and now they're trying to do some damage control.
I agree he was probably having a stressful day, but if his default response to stress is to threaten to put a man in a cage, then he should not have authority.
Part of your training as a pilot is learning how to find out about stuff going on in the area where you plan to fly and who to contact about flying in that area.
If you don't know (or have forgotten) how to do that, you should not be flying a plane. Full stop.
EDIT: For some reason I can't reply to to the commenter below who pasted "met with multiple law enforcement officers and first responders".
Those are not people responsible for airspace access and airspace management, and the pilot should have known that. Its 101-basics stuff.
Meeting with law enforcement and first responders about airspace is about as useful as fart in a spacesuit.
In response to "followed all FAA regulations", well he would not be threatened with arrest if he had .... I suspect there is far more to the story than the one-sided article lets on !
I’m sure the victims on the ground have a different opinion, but thank you for chiming in on their behalf.
On defense of the Pilot, it’s awfully hard to coordinate with some random nobody power-tripping beaurocrat in a disaster area with no power, water, or standard communication in play.
As a reminder this occurred the day after the storm.
I don't care if its the day of the storm, the day after or 50 years after.
The rules and laws of aviation do not cease to operate just because there has been a major storm.
In fact quite the opposite, they deserve to be far more rigorously adhered to and enforced because of the greater risk.
Quite the opposite, emergencies tend to suspend a lot of laws and regulations that aren't fundamental in deference to lack of time demanding that actions be swift and effective.
The last thing you want when trying to do major emergency response is to add an air disaster or two to your existing emergency. Even if lack of coordination doesn't lead to a crash, it can disrupt other rescue operations.
I mean, I have no clue who is at fault here. But cutting the boring fire chief trying to coordinate the mess some slack might be good.
This smells of righteous social media outrage.
As far as this story can tell us, things were going swell (as swell as a disaster area could be) until McBureaucrat came in and demanded he be worshipped. Ain't nobody got time for that nonsense.
If anything, if we are going to guess personality, it is some sort of company level sergeant type that rather uphold disciplin, order and chain of command no matter what.
I really dislike military type of leadership and command. I am sick of it. But this is the time for it. Like, just do what the fire chief says and chill.
Just doing stuff is usually bad in situations like these.
Chill and wait for orders and don't undermine the authority of those in charge in a messed up situation.
And also don't instigate in social media about it...
He did contact local officials and coordinate with them. Why didn't these local officials point him in the right direction?
Edit in response to your edit: he also contacted the airport and followed all FAA regulations.
2nd edit response: so the fact that the assistant fire chief threatened to have him arrested implies his guilt? No one has ever been threatened with arrest without having broken a law?
Or contacted one of the organisations listed here: https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4829
CTRL-A and CTRL-SHIFT-DELETE
All the people clamoring to defend the lame fire chief against the defend just don’t get it.
This a world-class disaster area and if someone is willing to risk their own safety to get supplies to people in imminent threat of perishing themselves… that’s a good thing. Life isn’t a 0-risk game, and definitely not in an insane disaster area.
Asking volunteers to not just rush in and do things themselves without coordinating via the proper organisations set up for that purpose is standard for every disaster. For instance: https://matadornetwork.com/change/why-you-shouldnt-run-out-t...
Except its not "their own safety".
If the guy crashes, or runs out of fuel, or has a mechanical fault, or, or .....
What happens then ?
Oh yeah, that's right, the professionals have to come scoop up the remains.
Its all fun and games playing the hero, until the fun stops.
None of that is part of the regular FAA-regulated private pilot training syllabus.
But also I suspect his insurance company would have a thing or two to say about operating in disaster areas.
There are any number of valid reasons from liability to the inability to vet the pilot's skills and licenses to the danger of introducing a pilot unfamiliar with the current SOP/LOPs.
I listened to a lot of reporting about a major fire in my country, and one of the things I learned was that ways of working that run like a well-oiled machine for minor and medium-sized disasters can completely fall apart in a large disaster.
For example, a rescue team is dispatched to Family A, but on their way they encounter Family B who are in imminent danger, and rescue them instead. Or maybe the rescue team are from a few towns over, all the signs are fucked, and they rescue Family C from a different street and think they've got Family A.
Well, if it's a medium-sized disaster you can coordinate this stuff on a whiteboard. But in a large disaster, where lots of irregular stuff is going on? Very easy for an update to get missed - then the whiteboard says Family A has a rescue team on the way, and the next free rescue team gets dispatched to Family B or C's empty home.
On the other hand, the whiteboard system is what you and your team know best, it's served you well in fires in low-rise buildings etc in the past, and the middle of a major incident doesn't seem like the time to adopt a different system. I can easily understand clinging to a familiar system even when it's not working very well.
So I can understand why, even when the person coordinating the response arguably should have integrated a volunteer with a helicopter, they might not have been ready to.
That's why it's so important as a volunteer to approach the organisations, units, groups, etc who are set up to accept and onboard volunteer help.
Agree that the article is inherently (and self consciously) biased, having only one side’s account. But I’m training to be a pilot and I know quite a few people in SAR. The fire chief should have used, if not the pilot, the helicopter.
The fire chief should have directed him to the organisation coordinating volunteers with their own helicopters, the Carolina Emergency Response Team, but it's possible he didn't know about it.
Sure. But it’s easier to find a pilot than a helicopter in a disaster. My point is threatening the pilot with arrest and sending him and his chopper away makes no sense.
Emergency and disaster response organisations always ask people not to just rock up and do their own thing, but to go via the correct channels when volunteering for help. It's not an ego thing.
You can see this in other chaotic situations, such as war. Command and control structures work great until they get overwhelmed by too many events on the ground, at which point they completely gridlock.
Why don't you consider they may be incompetent as an option?
Also, if you don't want to deal with local fire chiefs who don't know everything about the air operations, maybe don't approach them first and instead approach the actual units and organisations that are coordinating the air response.
Incompetence is the default state of every human organization. You rather need proof of competence not to assume it.
If they don't want people "getting in the way" then they have to be actually doing something. They are simply costing lives due to ego politics. They should be helping coordinate not shut down help.
There are plenty of military helicopters, but in several areas the available landing zones aren't large enough, which is why the CERT is coordinating small private helicopters.
I myself had to ignore all the usual “stay off the road, don’t drive under or over downed trees and power lines” to get relatives out of Asheville.
In times of crises, these rules, however well intentioned, are just suggestions. If you understand why the rules are there, how to safely inform them, and need to break them, break them.
Sometimes there just isn’t a bull on the other side of Chesterton’s fence no matter how much people might think there is.
The one that was not yet deployed?
Then why was a no-fly zone set up? That sounds pretty counter-productive?
Otherwise, they would have restricted the airspace on an ongoing basis: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/foa_html...
They did it temporarily, and once. At loggerheads with other rescue efforts.
>Random individuals flying their drones are a hazard to rescue helicopters and other aircraft.
Is it so really? In Ukraine war a lot of de-facto random individuals from both sides are flying a lot of drones without pretty much any coordination and control system and in combat conditions, much tougher than civilian emergency, and mostly in FPV mode without direct LOS, frequently at night, yet no drone-helicopter/aircraft collisions have so far been reported (and everybody watching the aircraft and helicopter losses very closely)
There are several approaches to this problem, but it usually requires that the drones are all running compatible control and communication software. e.g. [0] https://www.flytbase.com/blog/drone-disaster-relief
> Is it so really? In Ukraine war a lot of de-facto random individuals from both sides are flying a lot of drones without pretty much any coordination and control system and in combat conditions, much tougher than civilian emergency, and mostly in FPV mode without direct LOS, frequently at night, yet no drone-helicopter/aircraft collisions have so far been reported (and everybody watching the aircraft and helicopter losses very closely)
Those people aren't random, they're part of organised military forces and are part of command and control networks. Troops do reduce certain types of drone activities when they're informed that their own aircraft will be overlying their positions. And that's even though both sides are flying comparatively few helicopter sorties at the front lines because of the constant threat from air defence.
As an aside, there have been collisions, at least one of which was intentional.
these C&C networks don't control drones in the air. And most the people in the both fighting forces are mostly random ones really. If they got drones, frequently bought themselves or donated by volunteers - they fly them, if not - then not.
> Troops do reduce certain types of drone activities when they're informed that their own aircraft will be overlying their positions.
I don't know where you heard this. From what i heard - they frequently even can't discern whether this is their drone or an enemy's one.
I didn't say they did. Being part of command and control networks means that troops are informed of air operations by their own side over radio or other communications channels.
> I don't know where you heard this. From what i heard - they frequently even can't discern whether this is their drone or an enemy's one.
From acquaintances and friends in the Ukrainian armed forces on or near the front lines.
> His mistake was only coordinating with some local firefighters, and believing that was enough.
This was my same thought. Also, if it's only half-coordinated and an accident happens, who pays for the damages or the lost human lives?
I know the intentions were exemplary and that they are heroes, but one first has to zoom out a bit.
Some Bigwigs talking over people with local knowledge, ignoring advice, wanting to press their processes and rules...
Most people, after a couple of days were all aligned 'Leave the money and the equipment, we will do the rest.'
Also don't forget the basic motto of First Responders .... "don't become a statistic by adding yourself to the count".
The fact of the matter here also is that law enforcement, first responders, search and rescue etc. etc. do this sort of stuff all day long every day. They have training, they have well established lines of communication, etc. etc.
One guy and his helicopter trying to be a hero is, sadly, only likely to cause more problems than fix them. The professionals on the ground would likely rather have random civilians "out of their hair" instead of hanging around "trying to be helpful".
If the civilian professionals have trouble keeping up, they have lines of communication up to the military for backup support.
I know it sounds harsh. But really, in a first-world country like the US, just leave it to the professionals and the well established protocols.
If officials want civilians out of their hair they can declare a temporary flight restriction, which in fact someone did declare 30 minutes after the discussion with the fire official. (And it is strongly implied it was the fire official)
That said, some of the people on the ground actually promised to shield him; so there appears to have been a rather strong organizational split wrt attitudes towards pilot assistance. [1]
Note that a TFR MAY include coordination contact information. Which this one apparently did: "CTC ASHEVILLE APP WITHIN 20NM ON 125.8" (from the map summary in the September 29 screenshot in the article).
The balance of your thesis does seem to come under pressure with the Mon 30 Sept screenshot; which shows the TFR lifted and multiple aircraft (said to be helicopters) working in the area.
This is based just on information in this article. You might be basing your opinion on more general information?
[1] "...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 said he tried to de-escalate and asked the official for instructions on how to communicate with the Lake Lure Fire Department while he was flying a rescue mission near the town. Seidhom said the fire official ordered him to leave and not come back.
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This sounds a lot more like ego to me. A rational person would have pointed him to the right people to coordinate with, not keep escalating to the point of threatening him with arrest if he goes to pick up his co-pilot (his son) who was still on the mountainside.
And this is ESPECIALLY bad with the Carolina Emergency Response Team so DESPERATE for civvie copters (because the military ones are too heavy).
It's extremely common for disaster response and search & rescue teams to ask random volunteers to stand down and stop trying to "self-deploy" and help on their own.
First, it's inherently a more dangerous airspace than usual, given the huge numbers of aircraft flying around, lots of low level flying, and degraded communications and other networks.
Second, just keeping coordination between all the different units, groups, volunteers, and aircraft in a mass disaster like this is a huge undertaking. There are dozens of aircraft, hundreds of distinct organisations down to local fire departments and volunteer groups, and thousands of people all of whom have to stay reasonably organised to ensure everyone who needs to be rescued is. Which is why as far as possible it's best to use only the volunteers who have not only trained in the relevant communication and coordination protocols but actually practiced them at least once. If that group is overwhelmed then they look outside and bring on others through established and expedited procedures so that they don't jam up the works.
This is one guy and his helicopter, which in the greater scheme of things isn't so bad. But imagine it's 20, 30, or a 100 all doing what he's doing.
His mistake was only coordinating with some local firefighters, and believing that was enough. But they're not in charge of air operations. He should've approached the relevant air operations cell for South Carolina, or gone via one of the established volunteer organisations for pilots with their own aircraft that have pre-existing relationships with the Air Force and other organisations involved in rescues and disaster response, and are prepared to take in new volunteers and use them effectively.