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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.
