As RedState reported on Tuesday, Brian Trascher, Vice President and PIO of the United Cajun Navy, confirmed the Sunday “rotor washing” event at one of their Hurricane Helene relief stations in North Carolina by what he surmised was a UH60 Blackhawk helicopter.
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Brian Trascher of United Cajun Navy Confirms a Blackhawk Did ‘Rotor Wash’ a Western NC Resource Site
On the evening of Sunday, October 6, a helicopter “rotor washed” a POD center where the United Cajun Navy was distributing supplies and giving relief to the people impacted by Hurricane Helene. This area was no-fly territory, so the appearance of a helicopter flying 500 feet from the ground was extremely frightening, as the UCN documented on its X page.
Trascher had more to say about who might have been behind the incident, and stated that the organization was investigating.
A day late and a dollar short, the North Carolina National Guard decided to fess up that it was their Blackhawk helicopter that did the deed. On Tuesday evening, they issued this post on X.
The North Carolina National Guard (NCNG) is aware of an incident involving a NCNG UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter during a delivery of generators at the request of a local civilian organization to power their distribution outpost in western North Carolina.
The NCNG continued their explanation of what happened in a thread.
While attempting to land, rotor wash caused items to blow away from the local distribution set up by a group of civilians in the area. The crew immediately identified the situation, aborted the landing for safety reasons, and departed the area.
This incident is currently under investigation and the crew has been grounded until the investigation is complete. The NCNG is working with the identified local civilian organization to assess the level of damage caused by the rotor wash.
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<*slow golf clap*> So, does assessing the level of damage involve reimbursing United Cajun Navy for supplies that were destroyed? Asking for all those Carolinians whose relief was hampered because a pilot was asleep at the controls.
Safety is the NCNG’s number one priority, especially with the high volume of air operations currently happening across the region. While the NCNG strives for precision in every mission, sometimes things don’t go as planned.
When that happens, the NCNG takes it very seriously and are committed to addressing and correcting any issues to prevent future occurrences.
There is much-deserved ire against the federal government and its response—or lack thereof—to the Hurricane Helene tragedy in Western North Carolina. The fact that their own state national guard made this error only adds fuel to the fire of the people’s anger. The NCNG probably knew it would only be a matter of time before the discovery that it was their helicopter involved in the incident, so they got ahead of it in order to distract focus off them. This is CYA at its most disgraceful.
In my phone conversation with him on Monday, I asked United Cajun Navy’s Trascher about his suspicions about who it could be, and he mentioned the state’s Air National Guard. “They would answer to the governor of whatever state they came home to, and their own guard general,” Trascher said.
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Who is in charge of North Carolina’s National Guard? None other than Democrat Governor Roy Cooper, who has been part of the glacial response by FEMA and the roadblocks experienced by other relief organizations like the United Cajun Navy and individual citizens wanting to help. Interestingly enough, on that same Sunday of the incident, Gov. Cooper decided to take to X to slam the “relentless vortex of disinformation” and “bad actors” on X for making him a target.
As we continue our unprecedented response to Hurricane Helene, the nation is beginning to understand that impacted areas have been the target of a relentless vortex of disinformation, dialed up by bad actors and platforms like X.
We need to work together to rebuild and recover from a catastrophic disaster like this one – and spreading false information to sow chaos hurts real people. Politicians, billionaires and grifters who peddle lies during a time of crisis should be held accountable.
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“Politicians, billionaires and grifters who peddle lies during a time of crisis should be held accountable.” The first part of that last part stands: Cooper should definitely be held accountable. The “unprecedented response” he crows about had little to do with him and everything to do with billionaires like Elon Musk, the relief organizations, and the incredible Americans who entered the breach and were the first to respond. Instead, Cooper chose to cozy up to FEMA heads and play at CENTCOM from his cushy office and home in Raleigh, while the people he hindered and maligned were the ones doing the work of saving lives and offering hope.