A disaster recovery team director recently claimed that a National Guard Chinook helicopter flew “way too low” to the ground near the team’s project in North Carolina, reportedly resulting in 3 employees being hospitalized and over $100,000 in damages. The report comes as the Biden-Harris administration is facing criticism over its response to Hurricane Helene.
In a now-deleted post on LinkedIn, Kory Roger Kappes, director of Large Loss – SERVPRO Disaster Recovery Team, said, “Welp… I’ve debated if I should share this or not. But Friday our team and man-camp took a huge hit. A National Guard chinook helicopter was landing next to our project, like the other 100 helicopters we’ve seen this week, and they decided to ‘buzz the tower’, if you will. Coming in way too low and destroying all of our tents, awnings, our lunch, and damaging multiple trucks, trailers, campers, and much more.”
Kappes claimed that the disaster recovery team had to send three of its employees to the hospital and that the team’s campers and gear sustained over $100,000 in damages.
“When confronting the Senior Officer in charge, we were basically told ‘oops, our bad, and see ya,'” Kappes wrote. “I asked for names and was told to kick rocks. All I had was a tail number from the aircraft.”
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“Thankfully, my father whom is retired military, knew who to call immediately. Within 30 minutes the National Guard and the FAA had contacted me. And a public affairs officer stopped by our site later to apologize and give me the information to file a complaint and claim.”
Commenting on the government’s response to Hurricane Helene, Kappes said, “So for all of you out there still spreading misinformation about the lack of military response, unfortunately for us… they are here.”
The disaster recovery team director said that while the recent incident does not change how he feels about the military and the National Guard or his “immense respect” for U.S. service members, the National Guard “knew they messed up big time.”
In his post on LinkedIn, Kappes said the three disaster recovery crew members had been released from the hospital and that only one of the employees had a “serious injury.”
“Pretty sure our whole camp has a little PTSD each time another aircraft comes in to land now,” Kappes added. “We’re going strong and doing every[thing] possible to get this client operational again.”
A video of the incident was shared on X, formerly Twitter.
