Pilot Light

By the time Hurricane Helene reached western North Carolina in late September 2024, its winds had eased, but the unrelenting, record-breaking rainfall washed out roads and bridges and eroded entire mountainsides and communities. The storm and catastrophic flooding that followed killed more than 100 people statewide, and left thousands more cut off.

No running water. No electricity. No way to receive aid.

Except by air, which became the fastest—and sometimes only—option to reach these remote areas. Ben Whitley, a Raleigh-based plaintiff personal injury attorney and commercial pilot, knew he could help.
Whitley volunteers with Operation Airdrop, a disaster relief nonprofit formed in 2017 that works with pilots to deliver essentials to the most hard-to-reach and most in-need communities. “It’s a civilian fleet that helps out in that first week when federal responders can’t get in there,” says Whitley, who first partnered with the organization after Hurricane Dorian struck eastern North Carolina in 2019. “We could load these small aircraft and get in much quicker than anyone else.”

With his twin-engine plane filled with canned goods, water, baby food, diapers, dog food and other essentials, Whitley and other volunteers took flight after flight until state and federal organizations could reach the most isolated communities scattered along the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Operation Airdrop ultimately flew more than 670 missions into western North Carolina in the weeks after Helene, delivering more than a million pounds of supplies by air and truck, making it the organization’s largest mission to date.

“There was an eerie desperation,” Whitley remembers of the people he met during his missions. “That was disconcerting because you knew you were not only in the United States, you’re in North Carolina.”
Whitley grew up in Kinston, in the eastern part of the state. He heard plenty of trial stories from his father, Bob Whitley, who got his start as a criminal defense lawyer, but Ben had other aspirations.

“Quite frankly,” he says, “when I was a kid, I wanted to be a pilot.”

As a teenager, he got a job refueling planes on the tarmac of the Kinston airport, and earned his pilot’s license at age 17, thinking his career was set. But by the time he was in college, maybe some of his dad’s stories had sunk in: Whitley felt a pull toward law.

“I was able to see how you can use your mind to help people,” he says.” That’s what Dad was able to do.”
Instead of deciding between his passions, he combined them. Now a partner alongside his father at the Raleigh-based Whitley Law Firm, he flies across North Carolina and beyond to better serve his personal injury clients. With the help of his trusty twin-engine aircraft and his familiarity with the small airports scattered across the region, he’s able to expand the reach of his practice one flight at a time.

“Face-to-face relationships are very important,” Whitley says. “The law business, like everything else, is a relationship business.”

During his toxic tort and mass tort cases concerning the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, he remembers the barrage of out-of-state firms advertising to attract local clients. “I’m a big believer that people need lawyers who are local.”

Building those relationships, and seeing those cases through, requires time. The toxic tort cases, for example, often stretch years before clients see resolution. Flying is a counterbalance to the slow grind. A flight offers instant feedback: A plan is made and completed all in the same day.

“I don’t get that a lot with the law,” Whitley says.

The discipline required of a pilot also sharpens the skills he brings to the courtroom. Just like a storm can intensify without warning, a case can veer in directions you don’t expect. In both, success depends on preparation and snap decisions under pressure.

And then there’s this: “Flying is also fun as hell,” Whitley adds. 

By the Numbers: Operation Airdrop’s Helene Mission

• 673 flights flown into western North Carolina, all on fixed-wing private planes
• 402,000 pounds of supplies flown in by air
• 657-plus Starlinks dropped to remote areas without internet access