Not really possible if you don't have readily available pilots to fly it.

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.

> if you don't have readily available pilots to fly 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.

As I said elsewhere, I'm willing to cut those responders at the local level a bit of slack given that they're probably exhausted, overwhelmed, and not fully aware of all the parts of the response. That's why it's important to offer your services via the organisations/groups/etc set up for it, rather than finding the nearest local first responders.

People in authority get no slack when they start abusing power to flex without having a good reason. This dude just didn’t like being challenged.

When last did you run disaster response in any area for something of this scale?

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.

Arrests for not respecting authority is an ego thing. If it was purely about preventing him from flying he could have reported to the FAA

That's why it's important to not have chiefs defaulting to fear of losing control vs fear of losing lives.

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.

> m willing to cut those responders at the local level a bit of slack

Why don't you consider they may be incompetent as an option?

Without clear evidence of incompetence, why would I prioritise that option? The official's actions make sense in terms of existing and normal regulations and practices in disasters.

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.

> Without clear evidence of incompetence

Incompetence is the default state of every human organization. You rather need proof of competence not to assume it.

If you want to go by rules of thumb, the incompetence is a lot more likely to be the cowboy who went to the media to put first responders on blast because his “heroic” assistance was rerouted to the proper channels.