JetBlue Pilot Injured and House Destroyed by F4

[AKAAB]

JetBlue Pilot Injured and House Destroyed by Tornado

Word is spreading that one of our pilots got hit by the F4 storm in Cleveland, TN last week and had his house completely destroyed. He reportedly was injured and has already had facial/head reconstructive surgery. Fortunately, his family is okay.

Help is being organized on several fronts.

www.BluePilotFund.org - a non-JB affiliated self-help fund for pilots is collecting donations via PayPal.

FaceBook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Donations-for-Alan-Hiefner/108921679195784

Please think about how you would appreciate any assistance should you suddenly be faced with a devastating calamity in your life.

 

[AKAAB]

More details in the email to Blue Pilot Fund members this morning.

Dear Blue Pilot Fund Members,

So it’s April 28, 2011. A bad thunderstorm turns into a horrible nightmare. A tornado heads straight towards a farmhouse in Tennessee. His two year old was at Grandma’s and Mom was hunkered down in a store caught in the middle of running errands. The freight train noise roared outside his home. That sent Dad to the bathtub whereupon the JetBlue E190FO draped himself over his seven year old son.

Now imagine a football field. Alright, now imagine another football field. Okay, now picture most of a third football field. That’s how far away from the bathtub our fellow pilot was when his unintentional journey finally ended. The fierce tornado leveled a direct hit on his home stripping it down to the foundation. But the bathtub was there, with a mostly uninjured little boy still inside. Dad got pretty beat up. Reconstructive work, jaw wired shut, but he’s alive and walking around. Suffice it to say it’ll be several months before he can fly again. Unfortunately a neighbor and friend lost their life and the pilot’s financial worth took at least a 50% hit. (Half his livestock were wiped out and the structures he had on the farm were, for all purposes, uninsurable.)

He received $7000 from you Thursday morning. We know it won’t make him whole but we think it’ll help him start to rebuild his family’s life. We could possibly help him a bit more later but we’re going to let more established organizations like the JCCF and also FEMA (which finally arrived on the scene) offer their assistance and then see where he stands.

We also want to quickly highlight some key people. First, Brian Bell dropped everything during his own personal time to immediately complete the Evaluator’s Report. We just received the Hardship Notification (HN) May 7th so his response was the key to our rapid fund award process. Thank you, Brian. Joshua Sult and Mike Greenhawt are graciously directing additional aid efforts. Please contact them for details and contribute. And for the person who helped file the HN, is helping our fellow pilot with his JCCF application, and is also assisting with the Disability filing, that is truly outstanding. Thank you, Barry Elkins, for your exemplary efforts. May we all be as decent as you when helping a friend in need.

In closing, and as you may have guessed because of two concurrent fund awards, we are giving out more money this month than receiving. That’s quite okay; it’s going to happen occasionally. But please help replenish our account by convincing a JetBlue pilot to join the BPF. Thank you as always for your meaningful generosity.

Regards,

Blue Pilot Fund Inc.

www.bluepilotfund.org
[email protected]

 

[BILL LUMBERG]

Count me in...

I was 5 miles from the F5 in Plainfield Illinois in the 90's and we had a family living with us who lost EVERYTHING......not a happy time in their life.

 

[clr4theapch]

I'll make this a sticky for the family.. God bless.. and lets raise some money for them..

 

[Cheeta]

I'll make this a sticky for the family.. God bless.. and lets raise some money for them..

Not one who normally posts on BP but for this circumstance I will start...

With the news of Alan's situation spreading via Facebook to those who know him from both Jetblue and prior airlines there have been a lot of requests on where to send donations. After speaking to a number of guys who knew Alan from our prior airline it was decided that using PayPal donations was the quickest way we could get some help together for him and his family.

After calling PayPal, it was determined that the fastest way to get funds without having to pay the fees was to have the donations "gifted" to someones personal account. It was decided to use my account and leave it open to donations for the next week to give people time to contribute. On the 18th I will have a bank check made out for the full amount and will overnight FedEx it up to Alan and his family. Mike Greenhawt (JFK 320 FO) is working on this as well and will verify that all funds go DIRECTLY to helping Alan's family. A letter will be included in the package listing the names alphabetically of those who donated (no monetary amount listed)

This is all about helping one of our own, no matter what the amount all donations will help. If anyone has any questions, feel free to send me an email or give me a call. Thanks

Joshua Sult
PAYPAL ACCOUNT: [email protected]

 

[n757st]

Money sent. Bpf member since my hire date.

 

[Cheeta]

I want to take a few minutes and get everyone up to date on how the response from the aviation community is progressing for Alan Hiefnar and his family.

First off the Blue Pilot Fund has distributed a sizable cash grant directly to Alan and his family. The BPF is such an outstanding group of pilots that help pilots and anyone who is not currently contributing to be BPF should seriously consider it.

The response from the aviation community to the PayPal donation site ([email protected]) set up by JetBlue Pilots Josh Sult and Mike Greenhawt, has been outstanding to say the least. So far in a week the site has taken in several thousand dollars from Pilots and friends at JetBlue, Southwest, Fedex, United/Continental, Alaska and Mesa Airlines. Alan’s former employer Mesa Airlines has organized and is in the process of sending a care package to the Hiefnar Family. On the 18th of May Josh and Mike will close the account and prepare for the immediate distribution, of all funds collected, to Alan and his family. Mike Greenhawt will also be collecting cards and letters to be sent along with the donations collected from the PayPal site.

I received some amazing news today from the Certificate Chief Pilot at JetBlue Airways Craig Sandman. Craig informed me that the company has sent MCO Chief Pilot John Gotsch to be with Allen and his family with credit card in hand. John will be providing for the immediate needs of Allen and his family at the company's expense. Craig also informed me that the company will be arranging for a double wide mobile home for Alan and his family as well. This is to say the least outstanding news and exceeded all of my expectations for JetBlue's response to Alan and his family’s crisis. As you can well imagine this level of response did not just come from the Flight Ops team, but from the highest levels of the Executive Leadership team. Way to go JetBlue!

In the coming days Mike Greenhawt, Mike Blahowski and other pilots and friends will be organizing teams to go to Tennessee and assist Alan with any rebuild projects that are needed. Anyone wishing to join this rebuild team can get in touch with Mike via the face book page.

Thanks again to the entire aviation community and all involved who have donated or assisted in this project in any way…… Outstanding!

 

[clr4theapch]

Wow... how awesome.. good job all.. and speedy recover for this family with best regards from Flight info and all the mods..

 

[jonjuan]

Did the extended family conf call tonight and got commitments for around $200. Hope he's doing well.

 

[clr4theapch]

Taking the sticky off today... God Speed..