Footage has gone viral of an unmarked Black Hawk helicopter blowing over tents and supplies at a Hurricane Helene aid depot in Burnsville, North Carolina. So, are the rumors true? Who piloted the helicopter? Was it just an accident? Was it meant to send a message? Is FEMA or another federal agency involved? Glenn speaks with United Cajun Navy Vice President Brian Trascher, who tells Glenn that this looks more like a “hotshot” who accidentally came in too close than governmental revenge. However, he also spoke to people who claim they saw the pilots wearing standard Department of Defense gear. Brian also addresses what the United Cajun Navy is doing to prepare for Hurricane Milton. Plus, Glenn hears from a caller who says he was a Blackhawk pilot in the military and has personal experience with these incidents
GLENN: Brian Trascher is on, the vice president of the Cajun Navy. The United Cajun Navy. Brian, thank you for everything you guys are doing. You are absolute heroes.
BRIAN: Glenn, thanks so much for having us. And really just want to take a minute to thank you and JP, the team over at Mercury One for the tremendous support and generosity they’ve been giving us throughout this deployment in North Carolina. And we hope to continue to keep working together in Florida. So thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you, Glenn.
LENN: Yeah. Please, it’s the audience, not me.
BRIAN: Right.
GLENN: Please, don’t let me forget, before we go, to talk about Florida, and what we have to do in Florida. But first, can you talk to me.
Are supplies meant for Hurricane Helene? Are they purposefully being thwarted?
And what happened with the helicopter?
BRIAN: So, you know, you know, I think I made the mistake of asking for new conspiracy theories for Christmas. Because all the ones I asked for last year, came true.
(laughter)
BRIAN: So, you know, we — we were on the ground pretty early in Florida. You know, we always say that people have to understand that FEMA and the National Guard are not first responders. They’re second responders. The first responders locally — the local first responders are also victims, so they’re not always fully up to speed.
So that’s why we put people on the ground to get to work right away.
The good thing about the United Cajun Navy, is we don’t to have ask our lawyers permission to do anything, we just ask them to show up to the bond hearing later, and we’ll deal with it.
So anyhow, when we first got down there, we were hearing reports about people getting — getting stopped. And getting, you know — impeding the relief efforts. It didn’t happen to us.
You know, we have an existing relationship with FEMA and the Red Cross and a lot of agencies.
So they know who we are, and so we weren’t really experiencing it like other people were.
We were getting reports of it, for sure. But then, we were — we started getting frantic calls and texts, and pictures, and stuff. Sent to us. From our volunteers. Over at that site.
Saying, you know, what the hell is happening?
You know, they said that — that this Blackhawk did a little pass. Like he was going to land. He started giving us the X signs with his arms, saying it was a no land zone.
And he kept coming down. You know, look, I wasn’t there myself. But I watched a video a bunch of times. I am a pilot. I’m a fixed wing pilot, not helicopter.
But it does look to me, that, first of all, he was flying too low. They have to stay 500 feet over any structure or person. That’s just the day one rule.
But it looks like he does a left bank, and then aft pitch, which increased, in my opinion, the strength of the rotary wash, that you saw blowing all the materials in the tents everywhere.
And then he pitched forward and took off. So I really don’t — you know, everybody has been sending us information on the aircraft. They’re saying, you know, I don’t want to say, because we don’t know for sure. But they think they know who it belongs to. And where it came from.
Nobody knows, including myself, what the intent was. Some people are telling me, oh, the pilot just lost situational awareness and made a mistake. I’m like, listen, Blackhawk pilots are the Top Guns of the rotary wing.
The only Blackhawk pilots that make mistakes are the dead ones. You know, these guys are some of the best helicopter pilots in the world.
Seems like, either we had just a rogue hotshot, or they were trying to send some kind of message. I hate to go down that rabbit hole. Everybody saw the video now.
I’m happy to hear what anybody thinks.
GLENN: So do — I — I know somebody who has a Blackhawk. Believe it or not. I didn’t know you could buy them, but you can strip down apparently.
Do we know if this was private? At least.
BRIAN: That was. Okay. So my first instinct was — because you’re right. If you’ve got money, you can buy anything. Right? You can rent a congressman pretty cheap these days, including with inflation.
But somebody — one of our followers was really good with video. And they were able to close up on it, and see. The two pilots in the cockpit.
It takes two pilots to fly a cockpit. And they said, they were wearing standard DOD headgear. The aircraft does — if we think we’ve identified the right one, does appear to be — does appear to be registered to the military.
It was not armed. So I thought maybe it was — it belonged to an agency. You know, I don’t know. There’s so many possibilities.
GLENN: There was no marking on it?
BRIAN: Not that I’m aware of. We’ve looked at everything, that we could, as far as with the video and pictures available.
GLENN: I mean, that’s illegal, isn’t it?
BRIAN: Yeah. We just didn’t see any.
GLENN: Huh.
BRIAN: And so people have been using Flight Tracker and things like that, to see who was flying missions in that area. And, again, they have come up a few possibilities.
We’re trying not to jump the gun. And even, let’s say, it was military, the last thing I want people going and trying to find out who the pilots were. And start harassing them.
You know, I don’t want all of that.
GLENN: Yeah. You know, and I just said on the air, anybody who is threatening any government official, is a problem.
And it should — it should stop. However, you know, standing there, in a place, like you’re at now.
I assume you’re at our base camp there, by the Harley-Davidson dealer.
BRIAN: Yeah. Adam Smith, one of the baddest dudes in North Carolina.
GLENN: Yeah. And he has politely told them. Go away.
Because we have a system down. And it’s been working. And it’s saved a lot of lives.
And you can go do your thing.
But you’re not shutting us down. There’s no problem with saying, thank you. But, no, thank you. As we are the first responders.
But you cannot take it out on the people.
You can’t. Please, be kind. If you —
BRIAN: And I’ll tell you, Glenn. It just so happened, that the week before Helene hit. We had some prescheduled meetings in DC. And one of those meetings was at FEMA. They had us up at the Incident Command Center, which is like their war room.
And they had done a level one activation, and they were watching Helene.
And they were talking to all the local emergency managers, and making plans.
And I did not meet anybody in the entire building. When I was at FEMA. That was not a passionate, dedicated person that cares about their job. And cares about helping people in trouble.
So FEMA is — as a — as a entity, seems like, just another F-word.
And you can say what you want about the leadership of FEMA and the political appointee.
But the people on the ground. And there are people on the ground in North Carolina. Has been since I got there. But, yeah, don’t be ugly to those people. They’re just employees. Their job is to do this, and they do care about it.
