The day after a shocking video showing the rotor wash of a Black Hawk helicopter blowing away and destroying relief supplies for those whose lives were upended in western North Carolina by Hurricane Helene, Maj. Gen. Todd Hunt, the adjutant general of the North Carolina National Guard, responded in a filmed press conference.
In the video of the press conference that emerged, Maj. Gen. Hunt was asked about the reporter, namely, he was asked to explain how the incident happened and if communication measures are being put in place to stop such incidents from happening in the future, such as communicating and coordinating with local law enforcement.
He was asked, “We’ve seen, everybody’s seen the video of the Blackhawk helicopter and the blowing away the donations. I understand that is under investigation. Can you talk at all about that? And can you explain what kind of communication is in place between the National Guard and, say, local law enforcement or other local officials in terms of coordinating donation drops, or whatever landing may have to happen.”
Responding, the major general said that the helicopter was under the command of the North Carolina National Guard and that he takes responsibility for what happened. He said, “Yes, ma’am, thanks for asking that question honestly, because that was a North Carolina National Guard helicopter. It’s under our command, and I’ll take responsibility for it and we own it.”
Continuing, he explained what happened with the helicopter, saying, “What the situation was was they were bringing in a generator to that landing site. As they approached, they noticed that there were too many people and too many tents and commodities too close to the landing site, so they pulled in power to take back off like a go around in a helicopter, and the rotor wash caused that damage.”
Further, he explained how the North Carolina National Guard is responding to the incident, explaining the investigation and communication updates that have followed in the wake of the relief aid destruction. He said, “The crew is being grounded. We are under investigation. Safety is our number one, paramount with our forces that we have on the ground.”
He continued, noting further what he and the leadership is doing to avoid such tragedies in the future at similar landing site locations, “And so we are again continuing to investigate that we do have some communication with the landing sites and the people that we are going to take commodities to.”
Then, the major general added, on the topic of how the North Carolina National Guard’s response has developed in the weeks following the disaster, saying, “It’s matured over time. Initially we had no communication, so we were just making a call and landing but now the landing sites have been more mature, and we do have communication with emergency personnel that are on the ground, and we are very sorry that happened, and again, investigation is underway. Thank you.”
Watch him here:
atch the incident involving the Black Hawk helicopter below:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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