Video from a North Carolina disaster relief station appears to show a Black Hawk helicopter damaging the site with its rotor wash.
According to one report, the incident came only 40 minutes after the civilian aid site was allegedly “slow rolled” by a pair of suspicious black SUVs.
The situation unfolded Sunday as people gathered supplies to help Hurricane Helene victims at a Burnsville parking lot.
A video of the encounter showed the helicopter arriving over the parking lot where volunteers and aid were being staged.
“This afternoon [an] Unmarked Military Style Helo flies into the local distribution area and rotor washes/ destroys supplies in Burnsville, NC,” a caption on a video of the helicopter from TikTok user megsnbacon says.
According to the user, there should never have been a helicopter present.
“We had a meeting with all parties involved at this site and established it as a ‘no fly, no drop’ zone hours before and had sent crews to re-supply helos at another area,” the user wrote. “THIS WAS NOT ONE OF OUR HELOS!
“They flew in and hovered around for a bit looking like they wanted to land despite our signals telling them no.”
The helicopter’s next move apparently turned the volunteers’ rally point into a scene of chaos.
“Then they dipped down and performed a ‘rotor wash’ which seemed deliberate then flew off, destroying a lot of the staging area and harming the people directly below them in the staging area.”
The site did not actually appear to actually be “destroyed,” but some pop-up shelters and other supplies from one segment of the site were sucked into the air and flung away by the helicopter’s rotor wash.
The parking lot, packed with supplies and vehicles, was clearly not a landing spot.
The user said the helicopter was “unmarked” and flown by “masked persons.”
The helicopter’s action followed a suspicious incident reportedly involving black vehicles at the site.
“Forty minutes prior to this 2 unmarked black SUVs running blue lights rolled in, circled around and immediately left,” the user wrote. “They were not local [law enforcement] and not anyone we had been affiliated with.”
The video has been posted by other users across the web, racking up millions of views in just two days.
WARNING: The following videos contain language that some may find offensive.
Why did an unmarked Blackhawk rotor wash a supply drop off in western North Carolina pic.twitter.com/CqkgCvwEVZ
— Washingtons ghost (@hartgoat) October 7, 2024
Another angle of the helicopter’s low pass has surfaced as well.
Another angle of the Blackhawk rotor wash of the supply area in western North Carolina pic.twitter.com/zUSJgWe43D
— Washingtons ghost (@hartgoat) October 7, 2024
Amateur observers noted that several marked helicopters were in the area of the Burnsville parking lot, including one owned and operated by the Connecticut National Guard.
Others doubted the incomplete data that showed no helicopter directly over the supply cache.
“[T]he bird in question must have had its transponders off,” one theorized.
I did 3 playbacks of all H60 aircraft over Burnsville and none were captured circling the city including that parking lot. Only one H60 (AFR486) crossed the lot but just kept going so, the bird in question must have had its transponders off. I didn’t see FURY187 ever cross over. pic.twitter.com/vzcEoWSQQk
— GoferZeroSix (@GoferZeroSix) October 7, 2024
The call sign of the helicopter, the identity of its pilots and operator have yet to be officially confirmed.
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