Roy Sieger, director of Flagler County Executive Airport, is allegedly threatening to evict a pilot from the hangar he’s leasing there after the pilot made an emergency landing during Hurricane Milton, when the airport was closed. The pilot, who cites federal regulation in his defense, said he worried that Sieger’s anger would devolve into a physical altercation when Sieger confronted him soon after he landed.
Sieger was “very belligerent, yelling and screaming that by landing I had ‘infringed on his authority,’ according to the written account of the incident by the pilot, Bill Culberson. Culberson has retained attorney Dennis Bayer, who is seeking to prevent the eviction.
“Please note that an emergency situation existed beyond the control of my client, who acted in accordance with FAA regulations,” Bayer wrote Assistant County Attorney Sean Moylan and County Administrator Heidi Petito on Wednesday, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration. “Our position is that compliance with FAA regulations in an emergency situation does not warrant termination of the lease.” Bayer’s email is clearly intended as a signal that his client is ready to sue, though a more formal notice would first be required.
Sieger, a county employee, runs a highly successful operation at the airport–an economic hub for the county–but does not care to be challenged and can seem imperious, controlling the airport more as his domain than as a county department. The county administration has tended to defer to him because of his effectiveness, but it is the second time in two years that Sieger finds himself in a dispute over a threatened or actual eviction, with his sense of authority seemingly playing a role both times. It is also the second time that Bayer has represented an airport tenant in that situation.
Last year, Les Abend, a long-time tenant at the airport and a past chairman of the now-defunct county Airport Advisory Board, was evicted without explanation, not long after he had taken his plane out for a flight while utility workers were using the airport as a staging ground following Hurricane Ian.
Abend had been critical of Sieger’s leadership while Abend was on the advisory board. He sued Sieger, charging retaliation, and won on first amendment grounds. His lease had to be restored. (See: “Flagler County Tried to Evict a Tenant at the Airport. Jury Called It Retaliation and a Violation of 1st Amendment.”)
Notably, Abend had communicated with Sieger when he was preparing to take his plane out–for a flight long before scheduled–but never heard back: a similar situation would arise with Culberson, who tried hard to contact Sieger as he was looking for a place to land, never hearing back.
Culberson’s written account conveyed to county authorities is titled “Summary of Events 10 October 2024.” That was the day Hurricane Milton crossed the Florida Peninsula from south of Tampa Bay to Cape Canaveral, clearing the coast at midday. Culberson has a home in the Mobile, Ala., region, and in Flagler Beach. He had just returned to Alabama from a work assignment in California. But his future wife was having a concerning medical emergency at their home in Flagler Beach.
He considered driving, but “discovered Interstate I-10 and all routes were west bound traffic only.” (A FlaglerLive reporter traveled I-10 to Tallahassee and back on Oct. 9 and 10, when traffic was open in both directions and weather was not affecting that part of the Panhandle on the 9th, and clear skies on the 10th all the way to Jacksonville.) He researched flight information. He had received notice that Flagler Executive Airport was closed without prior permission, while Daytona Airport was open with limited services. Ormond Beach showed no status, but he’d learned that the airport hangars had suffered some damage, with some debris on the runways.
“I attempted to contact Roy Sieger by calling and leaving a text message to get prior permission,” Culberson wrote. “Up until this point we seemed to have a good relationship with my support of Airport benefit events and such. I felt that if I could get hold of him, I could get approval. I never heard back from him before departure.”
Culberson flew out of a regional airport near Mobile shortly after noon, planning to get to Daytona by 3 p.m. He was expecting to be able to fly in the kind of good weather that allows flying by sight all the way to his destination. He maintained contact with traffic controllers along the way, but soon learned that Daytona had closed. “This basically meant that I had no one to talk to about the specifics of landing anywhere in the area,” Culberson wrote. “Additionally, the weather had deteriorated in the last 10 minutes of the flight and I was going to need an instrument approach for an arrival anywhere in the area.”
With deteriorating weather, fuel became a potential issue. He had to turn to his instruments for navigation until he could get below the clouds to attempt a landing, with Jacksonville as a backup landing zone. Once out of the clouds over Flagler, he discovered that one of the runways was illuminated with a huge X (as in: closed), but another runway was open. “Considering the deteriorating conditions and the availability of a runway I decided to declare an emergency on Daytona Approaches frequency and then inform any traffic at Flagler Airport of my intention to land,” Culberson wrote. “The landing was accomplished and I taxied to my [hangar] without further issues.”
A pilot by FAA regulation is authorized to declare an emergency and “may deviate from any rule” as necessary to meet the emergency, FAA regulations state.
As Culberson was moving his aircraft into the hangar, Sieger approached him in is “belligerent” state. He had “no concerns about my welfare, the reasons for the flight or anything other than his ‘Authority’ issues,” Culberson wrote. “He continued to spool up and I became concerned that this may devolve into a physical confrontation. I apologized and kept my comments to a minimum to defuse the situation until hopefully cooler heads could prevail.”
Culberson appealed for leniency but heard nothing from Sieger until Nov. 8, when the two had a longer discussion, Sieger repeated that his authority had been infringed, and eviction proceedings would continue. Sieger did not respond to an email about the Culberson account, nor provide information about Culberson’s lease. Contacted about his email to the county, Bayer said he would speak with his client before commenting.
Less than a month ago, during a County Commission segment on residents’ complaints about noise at the airport, Sieger publicly rebuked residents, telling them they had bought homes near the airport, not the other way around.
Blue sky says
When is the County going to have enough of this Director.
He is too big for his britches. Runs this place like he owns it without and directions from the County Commission.
Fire him…..
DP says
Sieger needs to calm his a** down. He’s even talked down to the FD when they had to make access to the airfield for actual emergencies in the past. I’ve had to deal with gis arrogance before. I Understand it’s an enterprise fund, and the County doesn’t control it. But diplomacy should prevail. It maybe time the county clamps down on the hot headed airport director, or fire his a**.
Jane Gentile Youd says
Sieger is an arrogant, self aggrandizing , unprofessional, anti-people person in addition to not caring about the safety of the community, the air quality and WHO and from WHERE are these unknown flight school ‘students’ conming from. WHO is makiing the most money on them? Mori Hosseini et al at Embry Riddle? Does Sieger have an offshore account together with a few other county cozy pals? Who knows?
It all stinks beginning with the County Commision who has never had the majority of b….s to fire Hadeed, Petito, followed y Sieger, Moylan, and the best developer ally yet – ADAM give us away Mengel….It all stinks and I really want to move far away from here.
I cannot relate to the complacency of the people who live here who tolerate the corruption of the officials and vote by color not by person. I don’t fit inwith this group mentality
Truth says
You have to wonder, by whose standards does Toy run a “successful operation”? There are countless flights which flight below FAA acceptable altitude. There are flight every single day that break curfew. Oh boy, an emergency landing. He surely didn’t curse the flight student out that was doing touch and go’s Friday after Milton. The guy is a joke. He falsely reported that the good citizens of PC posted duplicate complaints on the portal, yet not a single citizen has seen his so called evidence. There has been formal complaints filed against him with the County, yet the County won’t answer the citizens back about those complaints. Today, the noise from the airport was beyond unbearable, but what are the citizens to do? Students I suppose allowed to fly in high winds under 1,000 ft above our homes. PC is diseased with criminals like Roy. He should be fired. He should be federally investigated. He is a disgrace to PC as is Heidi Petito and Mike Walz.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
County needs to investigate as not too many people have been happy with how Siegar runs the airport. Might be the FAA needs to take a deeper look into Flagler Executive as well.
Relax Roy says
So are county employees allowed to intimidate and threaten whomever they disagree with ?
This is not the first time Siegler finds himself in a controversial situation we’re the county has to expend enormous legal costs defending this TROGLODYTE with ANGER ISSUES.
I guess the county has plenty of money to shell out for Sieglers lawsuits.
BLINDSPOTTING says
Roy Sieger needs to be fired period……Sieger NEVER showed, and continues to do so,
to be a good neighbor of our airports surrounding communities and the citizens concerns for
their safety, health and quality of life. He and Jorge Salinga’s joint presentation at the
FCBOCC workshop meeting was appalling that even some of the commissioners eyebrows
were raised, all with the exception of Andy Dance who kisses the ground Sieger walks on
as Dance poised questions to Sieger that answers would knowingly upset and bait the residents
attending the workshop. Once again of the 574 complaints that went through the unadvertised
unpublicized secret airport noise complaint portal that required additional investigation
what is the outcome????Was this even followed up by Petito and the FCBOCC , where is
the oversite???? Sieger is NEVER held accountable for his egregious actions and runs our
airport as if he does own it, how many complaints and lawsuits by his tenants does it take,
how many complaints by his own Airport Advisory Committee members (DISBANDED AND
NEVER BROUGHT BACK) does it take. This pilot was in an emergency situation and did his best,
would it have been better if the plane crashed and there were fatalities????Why didn’t Sieger
answer this pilots emergency???? Once again Sieger showed no compassion , empathy,
consideration or tolerance for a fellow pilot, what is WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE???
All Sieger cares about is getting his numbers up from the student flight school mills who pose great
safety and health risk to our communities so that now he can fund his corporate Tah Mahal to
entertain his fat cats. Perhaps if it were a student flight school pilot landing he would have let
it go as he has no respect for his tenants as tenants have complained that they can’t even get on
the runways at times due to all the flight school training and other flight schools that come in from
the tricounty areas and use our airport as a freebie just because they can. We need individuals like
Les abend or Daryl Hickman who have tried for years to help Sieger maintain a healthy environment
for our airport to coexistw ith our communities. Perhaps the new county and city officials will
see through all of this and help heal this toxic work environment that Sieger promotes and has
created. A resident had to email the county this past summer as Sieger and Petito BOTH took
vacations at the same time because if one is out the other is in charge of the airport, and had to
ask who is in charge if both are out, the resident waited weeks for a return reply. Also we have
proof and snapshots of flight school planes at the time of Milton performing touch and goes that
we sent to the county and the city, WHY IS THIS ALLOWED but not an emergency landing
which translates into a life or death situation is beyond insanity!!!!
Celia Pugliese says
Mr, Roy Sieger’s quasi totalitarian and arrogant attitude in the FIN Airport is becoming not only so careless and dangerous to the adjacent Palmcoasters reports of flight schools dangerous nuisance to the community but also the pressure for current tenants in the airport with probably seniority fees in their current hangar rental contracts of years and maybe eyeing to vacate them for higher revenue to more close sympathizers of his personal airport polices and authority! Unfortunately the current FCBOCC and administrators give him green flag and then we the taxpayers pay for the legal fees to defend him. Maybe and hopefully some change will come in 2025…and the Palm Coast residents reports regarding the negative effects and danger imposed on them by mostly world wide students learning to fly over their homes and the lawsuits over unjustified evictions intended in current hangar lease’s will stop.
BLINDSPOTTING says
Truth: You are right the last FOIA request fiscal report shows the airport IN THE RED FOR CLOSE TO
ONE MILLION DOLLARS, if it were not for FAA funding to promote the flight schools, the higher
the numbers the more the funding. It’s a vicious cycle of corruption!
Using Common Sense says
Flagler Airport is allowing the safety, health, and welfare to be sold out to the greed of flight schools making huge profits at our expense! An average of 520 daily low, loud, and lead emitting student training operations circling only 300 feet over noise sensitive homes, schools, churches, and businesses are destroying our peace, polluting our environment, and negatively affecting our quality of life. Touch and Go maneuvers should be banned by the Flagler County Commissioners and Roy Sieger needs to be terminated for his lack of civility, unprofessional conduct, and refusal to enforce noise abatement and fly friendly guidelines, before his actions result in a tragedy or even more costly lawsuits for the County. Clean house please! We the People have Rights to a high quality of life, peace, safety, health, and welfare, and Flagler Airport has not been acting as a good neighbor!
Skibum says
Despite this airport director’s pompous declaration of supreme authority over every inch and every aspect of his airport fiefdom, he does not rule the skies above, and has absolutely no authority whatsoever over any pilot who declares an emergency situation in his aircraft and needs to put his plane down right away. The FAA gives wide discretion to pilots who declare an actual emergency while in the air. Now, since this pilot did in fact declare an emergency in order to land at his home airport during Hurricane Milton, they may want to ensure that the nature of his “emergency” was legitimate, and maybe the airport director has some involvement, I’m not sure. But the airport director is way off base to assert some perceived slight to his “authority” and to try to evict the pilot because he landed his plane when our airport was essentially closed, without considering that the pilot was in an emergency situation that could have had potentially drastic consequences had he not put his plane down on the ground when he did.
Kimmiek says
It was an EMERGENCY landing
FLF says
I guess fishing Goor Lake is out of the question…. They used to run hydroplane boat races there 70 years ago.
BLINDSPOTTING says
Blue Sky: Heidi Petito is the person who can fire Sieger BUT
Petito is attached to Siegers left hip , seen celebrating with him,
correct me if I’m wrong Petito’s spouse was a fire chief here
and here we have a person from the FD who has had difficult time
dealing with Sieger in emergency situation. This is bizarre and why
the heck did Jerry Cameron even hire Petito after firing her spouse
from his position. Now we hear that Petito’s staff under her and Jorge
Salina’s are petrified of the 2 of them, the county has a couple of
lawsuits pending from people who were fired under their rule.
Tired of your LIES says
Jane…please provide all PROOF of corruption by any and all you accuse in your post. Otherwise, please sit down. You yell “corruption” at every corner yet fail time and time again to prove it. If you were in charge something tells me you couldn’t keep any employee for very long. The second they would do anything that you disagree with, your solution would be to fire them.
Celia Pugliese says
Even the residents in the Hammock 9 miles north of the airport are affected by the nuisance schools practicing over this city as this upset resident post in ND shows and not counted like mine and many others in the FIN now taken out X portal::
tess soto
Lakeside by the Sea
What really is needed stopping cars from speeding on A1A and “annoying planes flying overhead all day long”!
Z Section says
YES!!!!! ALL of this!!
Skibum says
Yes! The plane made an emergency landing, during a hurricane when visibility and other storm conditions had limited the pilot’s choices where to put down due to deteriorating weather. The stormy weather “closed” not only our local airport, but the one in Ormond Beach AND the large airport in Daytona, and it was questionable whether the plane he was flying had sufficient fuel, not to mention favorable conditions, to deviate and try to make it up to JAX before the approaching hurricane closed that airport as well. A pilot flying an aircraft is GOD during a declared emergency, and can do just about anything in order to get an aircraft safely back to earth, and any idiot who confronts such a pilot upon landing should have his head examined!
Tammany Hall says
Why don’t you and Jane Gentile-Youd move away together and break someone else’s balls…..you both talk too much with no real solutions but trying to undermine people.
Just sit down and shut up.
Tom D Hutson says
No problem. If any of the county commissioners have a backbone tell your county administrator to call Roy Sieger into her office and tell the “big head’ you ARE FIRED!
As Trump would say.
Backslapping Commission says
Tired of your lies:
Citizens have the RIGHT to point out corruption especially those like Jane
who are long term residents, it is the job of the lawyers to prosecute those
officials who are corrupt and to identify and investigate shady practices and
then let the courts decide.And by the way there are a lot of corrupt officials
in the government as we all well know. If the shoe fits feel free to tie up that
stinking lace and wear it! Jane is a genuine anti-corruptionist and is allergic
to corruption, unlike you who remain blind to it wearing those tied up lace
goody 2 shoes and your self-righteous attitude. Now in the great words spoken
by the great Jane Gentile Youd that remain to echo through the county chamber
halls, “YOU SHOULD ALL BE FIRRRRRED.”
Backslapping Commission says
Tammany Hall: I find your rebuke very cowardly. Like the Tammany
Hall Society a small coterie of politicians backed by REAL ESTATE
DEVELOPERS used PATRONAGE and NEPOTISM to CONTROL the
county and city governments of Palm Coast. Those local residents like
Jane , Celia and others who expose the political corruption of our officials
help to capture public attention and incite public outrage. You cannot
with your asinine comments repress or silence our voices to root out political
corruption. How about having the “cogliones” to say this to us in person.
Jane Gentile Youd says
Tired of your Lies I have all the proof of my allegations,. Email me at Janemay@aol.com so we can meet and I can show it to you in person. In the meantime wash your vicious mouth with soap. I have a real estate license for 45 years and never one complaint about my service by any client and a day named after me in Miami Dade County for 26 years of Civic Service so please open your eyes before your mouth.
Jane Gentile Youd says
Tannany Hall you must have none yourself.
Tom Albano says
This pilot is completely irresponsible… the Airport was Closed ! It had a Notam stating that . He took off knowing the airport at his destination was Closed ! It was not an emergency landing by any stretch of his imagination. Hope the FAA gets involved.
Roy is an asset to our county & airport.. calling him a bully for enforcing county & Federal Regulations….. he’s just doing his job !
Layla says
A lotta “so called experts” and nasty comments here. YOU LOST, get used to it. This community would be such a nice place to live if everyone would just sit down and shut up for a change.
Moose says
Tired of your constant complaints, Janie. If you have proof of corruption, please turn it over to the proper authorities, then sit down, please.
Neil says
They are not allowed to. Read the charter. They can fire her. I suspect any more of this shit and they will. They are growing tired.
Neil says
Roy and Holly run the county. It’s the puppets behind the closet.
Celia Pugliese says
And Tammany Hall been defunct since 1967, so maybe blabbering from the grave.
The world is really flat says
Yeagh, that’s that answer. If we all stop complaining about fraud, incompetence, waste, cronyism and thuggery everything will get better.
Fernando Melendez says
It’s was a safety issue I understand but the guy had his wife in a situation possibly a medical situation, so, time to step back and let kool heads prevail.
BLINDSPOTTING says
Tom Albano: Why was there another runway open at our
airport??? OH. that was for the flight school planes to perform
their touch and goes of which we have aerial shots. That’s allowed right!
But not for a fellow pilot in an emergency situation!
And what makes you say that this was not an emergency landing???
Did you read the article where it states that the pilot had intended to
land at Daytona Airport as he researched that the airport was open
then in the midst of his flight he found out that it closed. We see that
you are a pilot yourself and know how quickly weather can change
when your up there and then on top of this you see that you are running
low on fuel. The FAA should get involved as we sent them those aerial
shots of ER flight school planes performing touch and goes at that time,
we got no answer from them, so come on BRING IT! It’s Sieger who
is in the wrong for his lack of compassion, empathy and consideration cause
his ego is is bigger then his poorly run airport. Justice shall prevail.
Again says
“YOU LOST” man humanity its absolutely COOKED 😂
Tom Albano says
This pilot took off knowing full well Flagler was Closed … Daytona was his Destination… not Flagler . What was his alternate Airport ? Upon getting close to Daytona he was informed they were closed … why not land at that Closed Airport??? He knew he’d be in big trouble. He should have headed to his alternate. And if that was closed he legally should have 45 minutes of fuel remaining ! ….. at his speed that’s 250 miles !
Bad decision was made from the start of his flight.
Honorable says
Siegler should resign his position already and remove this embarrassment from Petito and the commission.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Proof has been turned over to the very people in charge of outsourcing your tax money to an outside attorney and in violation of Al Hadeed’s contract pledge with the county. They all work together . The foxes guard the henhouse and you and I are the hens!
BLINDSPOTTING says
Once again this pilot took off knowing that Daytona was “OPENED” and closed
in the midst of his flight! He saw that one of the runways at FIN was clear with
no “X”, According to FAA regs a pilot is authorized to declare an emergency and
may “DEVIATE FROM ANY RULE” as necessary to meet the emergency.
Answer these questions that you and Sieger are avoiding: 1) If the airport
was closed why were ER student flight school planes performing touch and goes
as we have the aerial shots??? 2) Why didn’t Sieger answer the pilots text???
3)Where was ATC???? This pilot was in compliance with FAA regs as it was an
emergency situation beyond his control, keep in mind there is NO RADAR at
FIN airport. And once again would it have been to Sieger’s authoritarian style
if this would have ended in fatalities, he actually saved Siegers a** for not
being present during an emergency situation in which a pilot was trying to
contact him.
BLINDSPOTTING says
Tom Albano: We have just one last question for you, is that you
flying UNDER the highway overpass just above the highway, on
your social media page? If it is or is not you either way you are
suppose to be promoting FAA safety standards and regulations,
we doubt if that is acceptable according to FAA rules and
FAA regulations. Have a good day.
Joseph Barand says
Simple solution, have Trump appoint him to headup the FAA or DOT, he would just be another clown like Trumps other picks.
Mich says
WAKE UP PALM COAST. TODAY IS 11.18.2024 and Roy is allowing touch and go flights directly over the path of brush burning off of Citation and Seminole Woods. I have it on video. I have sent it to HR, to worthless Heidi Petito and to Leann Pennington. What will be done about the constant infractions against the FAA & the community? ROY SIEGER NEEDS TO BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY
Mich says
what he does NOT answer for is the PROOF of recorded touch and go flights on that same day. The airport was supposed to be closed that Friday after Milton. The guy is pompous! The new County HR Director, Charlie Picano, I have filed my formal complaint against him lets see what backbone Charlie has. I hope he gets fired and the Commissioners vote Heidi Petito out of her Administrative role, at this point, the blind is leading the blind running this airport. Today, they were flying DIRECTLY over managed burn piles under 1,000 ft. I am sorry, but if I am a student, 19 years old taking lessons and come upon this, it wouldn’t matter my required hours, my safety would come first. Yet Roy ignores this, Heidi ignores this. They have been reported via video evidence today to the FAA and Flagler Live.
BLINDSPOTTING says
Mich: The BANE of the Palm Coast community is the ceaseless low
flying flight school planes discharged by the apathetic and
irresponsible airport director director along with his accoplice
colleague Heidi Petito. They both need to be fired. This sums it
all up.
BLINDSPOTTING says
FlaglerLive: You mention in your article that Sieger, a county employee, runs a highly successful
operation at the airport–an economic hub for the county. our question is what does this
airport contribute to the local community and please be specific.