Pilots in the Cape Fear mobilizing support for western North Carolina
NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — With hundreds of roads damaged or impassable, several groups of aviators are taking to the skies to help out.
The Port City Aviators Club is on its second day of collecting donations and flying them to western North Carolina.
On Sunday, 8 planes flew from the Aerocenter in Wilmington with several more flights planned for Monday evening.
Along with the planes, a truck carrying 15,000 pounds of food and supplies and 3 thousand pounds of water left Sunday. we were arriving in Ash County earlier Monday morning.
Club president Brad Nuznoff said he didn’t expect the amount of outpouring of support the club has gotten.
“It got deeper than that, the people showed up with their items and they realized we were, we needed help when we had some trucks and this, that and the other,” Nuznoff said. “We had rooms completely full, we had to revert back to this hangar here that was half full. And then next thing we knew, all of these people that were dropping were parking out in the field and coming in here and helping and sorting and separating and weighing.”
And over in Brunswick County, another group of pilots has also begun collecting donations.
The Cape Fear Regional Jetport will be collecting and sending out supplies all throughout the week.
Airport director and aviator Howie Franklin said the people of the Cape Fear have shown they will support those who have helped them in the past.
“They understand how devastating this situation is up there so we’re ready to help,” Franklin said. “Thing is that the area is willing to help out because they were helped, many times, many times here and they saw how great it was to have an airport in the area where they could bring goods and services in.”
Several single and multi-propellor aircraft were used to carry donated items.
And on Monday afternoon, Wilmington-based Megacorp Logistics donated its jet to the Aviator Club to help deliver supplies.
Franklin added the Jetport will continue to accept and deliver supplies to western North Carolina until they’re told to stop.
If you would like to drop off any donations to the Jetport, Franklin said to do so during normal business hours from 8 am to 6 pm, or 5 pm if the weather is bad.
