This former NASCAR driver has taken the checkered flag in helping his neighbors.
One-time NASCAR Busch series champion Greg Biffle made a daring helicopter rescue after a stranded Helene-victim caught his attention by using a large mirror.
“The Biff” has been helping his fellow North Carolinians – flying from his shop in Mooresville to the remote mountains where dozens remain isolated and in danger.
That includes one lucky man who caught the pilot’s attention using a large mirror to reflect sunlight towards Biffle’s cockpit.
Video shows Biffle, 54, piloting his privately owned chopper over some mountains when the glint of a mirror on the ground catches his attention from over one mile away. Biffle said the method was ingenious as the light stuck out amidst the surrounding chaotic scene.
“I’ve seen some really tough stuff. Roads and bridges gone and washed out. Not just one road or one area. I mean, it’s hundreds of miles,” Biffle told NewsNation adding, “You can’t get eyes on it and so you can’t see how bad it is.”
In Biffle’s rescue footage, he swoops down toward some of Helene’s victims who stand in a remote clearing amidst a forest’s-worth of trees desperate for help from above – a mirror held in by both hands.
Uneven ground, a narrow landing strip and power lines all made the landing incredibly difficult, but the experienced and determined pilot made sure to cross the finish line.
“6 attempts to land due to difficulty but we got there,” Biffle wrote in an X post adding, “Got him a chainsaw, EpiPens, insulin, chicken food, formula, gas, 2 stroke oil and sandwiches premade from Harris Teeter before we left.”
In a post to Instagram Biffle explains that the model helicopter that he pilots is able to land in tighter spaces than traditionally sized choppers.
which he says has an advantage over larger crafts. Greg Biffle/Instagram
“Trees. Canyons. Power lines. Glad this little beast of a helicopter can make it to the areas unreachable by larger aircraft,” Biffle wrote in the caption.
The NASCAR Top-75 All-time driver has been posting footage of the devastation around Lake Norman, which is just north of Charlotte.
from his helicopter. Greg Biffle/Instagram
“Holy crap never seen Lake Norman this way,” he wrote in a post while surveying the flooded valley, “On my way to get some families out of the Banner Elk stay safe.”
Biffle has also been providing affected communities with SpaceX Starlinks. Phone and internet service remain a problem for thousands in the Southeast – with hundreds still unaccounted for in part due to phone outages.
These Starlink set-ups are expected to aid in communicating with those still in dire straits and have also been utilized in war zones like Ukraine.
As of Tuesday the storm’s death toll reached 200. Helene the most devastating storm to hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. Officials say that number could continue to climb as at least 600 people remain missing across six states, according to officials.
Biffle is volunteering as part of Operation Airdrop, which is providing disaster relief across North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida.
