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.
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.