Private pilots self-organize to deliver emergency supplies to western North Carolina

In the days after Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina, private pilots sprung into action, performing both search and rescue and supply drop missions in hard-hit areas. The operations have largely been self-organized, and have prompted attention from government officials. WFDD’s April Laissle tagged along on a flight last week to see the work in action.

Take off

The trip starts at the Lake Norman Airpark. Pilot Matt Quilinan of Race City Flight Operations loads us into a Cessna 172 and does the pre-flight checklist. 

“This is a fire extinguisher so in an emergency, you’d be in charge of that,” he says, pointing under the seat. “I’d be in charge of flying the plane.”

With my nerves in check, Quilinan turns the key and we take off. We head toward the Statesville Regional Airport, where Hurricane Helene Airlift Relief, a volunteer-led supply distribution project, has been operating for days. Our plan is to stop there and load up before heading off to the mountains — it’s what dozens of other pilots have been doing since the storm hit.

After we land, I ask Quilinan why this place became a hub for the operation. 

“It's massive, and also there’s not a control tower,” he says. “You didn't hear me talk to a tower controller. I just kind of did whatever I wanted to, and that can kind of expedite the flow because we can just kind of communicate ourselves and figure it out.”

The hangar looks like a makeshift Costco. Dozens of volunteers are running around among pallets of donated diapers, protein shakes, water bottles and granola bars. There’s a big whiteboard with a list of eight airports and their supply needs written on it. 

Quilinan heads to the pilot check-in station, where a volunteer asks how much weight we can carry and where we’re going. 

“If you could while you're there get a report on what they need and the urgency of those needs; we're just kind of going off of what we hear from our pilots right now,” the volunteer says. 

Much of this operation has relied on word of mouth. It sprung up after pilots from local aviation groups began organizing on social media and flying out to airports in the disaster zone. They asked the first responders who greeted them what items were needed.

“And it just grew from there,” says Dave Landers, a pilot on the board of the Experimental Aircraft Association — one of the groups that helped organize this. “It quite exploded, and just think of all the logistics, and all of that has come together so quickly.”

Landers says he learns more about the scale of the disaster with each trip.

“One of the troopers I talked to just said there's a seven-year-old boy that got swept away and he's now living at the fire station,” he says. “A man was out of town last week. He came and went up to an officer and said, ‘I can't find my wife and two kids, and my house is gone.’ It's just horrific, heartbreaking stories that are going on out in the mountains.”

Many people have gotten involved in the operation because of stories like these. But that’s made it a little chaotic — eventually Statesville organizers had to start turning away donations. And after more than 500 flights took off from the airport within five days of the storm, officials began limiting the number of planes in and out by the hour for safety reasons. 

Banner Elk

After volunteers help us load donated goods into the plane, we take off again, this time bound for the Elk River Airport in Banner Elk. As we fly west, the storm’s footprint emerges. Trees just beginning to show fall colors have been snapped like matchsticks, leaving gaps in the forested mountains. Roadways nestled in the hillsides are totally abandoned.  

As we land, we pass over a swath of the runway still covered in dirt leftover from the flooding. We park and carry diapers, Gatorade and water inside the hangar, which is already stacked to the gills. 

Banner Elk resident and volunteer Bob Harris is running the operation here. He says other volunteers are picking the goods up in trucks and driving them to the town hall, where distribution is being managed. 

“We go out and deliver to Elk Park, and they tell us what they need, and they send lists out,” he says. “They are local communities. It's not for us to know.”

He says those needs change day by day — most recently, those residents have asked for Benadryl to quell bee stings and insulin. I ask about the government’s role in all of this. 

“They're very slow to respond,” he says. “They don't have the resources you'd think, if they really did, they'd be bringing in trailers for the people who've lost their houses. I haven't seen any of that.”

Government response

FEMA officials dispute these claims. They say hundreds of workers have responded to the disaster, and that they’ve been placing people who have lost their homes into hotels, not trailers. FEMA search and rescue teams have been working in Avery County since September 30. And the state government has said thousands of emergency responders have been involved in recovery efforts since the storm hit. 

Still, Harris sees private aid efforts as a way for the community to be self-sufficient and says he even pushed back on a request from the Air National Guard. 

“They landed the other day at the airport, and somebody said, ‘Do you have supplies?’ They go, ‘No, we're just here to assess.’ I said, ‘Well, you can assess from 10,000 feet. You don't need to be on us, sitting on an airport runway to assess anything.’”

In recent days, government officials have been trying to address some of this animosity and dispel rumors that have proliferated since the start of the disaster. FEMA created an official rumor response webpage. And North Carolina Representative Jeff Jackson released a video on social media disputing the idea that the government was working to prevent volunteers from getting involved in relief efforts like this. 

“If you want to bring in a private plane full of supplies, you can do that,” Jackson said. “The only issue is there's now triple the normal amount of air traffic because of all the planes bringing in supplies, and there have been a bunch of near misses in the air. So they're just asking folks, get in touch with the Emergency Operations Center, let them know you're coming, and the FAA will clear you to land.”

Harris told me his airport alone has been getting 50 flights in a day since shortly after the storm hit. At times, it’s been difficult to manage, but he says they’ll take all the help they can get. 

“Many of these people have lost their homes,” Harris says. “The houses have washed down the river and no offense to the press, but they seem to want to focus on Asheville,” he says. “And I appreciate you all being out here asking locally, because there's a lot of need in these small towns.”

The operation in Statesville began winding down on Sunday, as more government aid flowed into the state. But private distribution sites are still operating at other airports. And Quilinan says he’ll keep flying goods out for as long as they’re needed.