Unidentified Caller Threatens to Shoot Down Tour Helicopter

Local and federal authorities are investigating a Blackfoot man after he made threats to shoot down an aircraft.

All throughout the week of the Eastern Idaho State Fair, people in the Blackfoot area have had the unique opportunity to take a helicopter ride from the Tadd Jenkins parking lot. But all those rides have caused a lot of noise and pushed one local resident to make a call he is sure to regret.

“Hey, you tell that guy in that helicopter, if he flies over my house that low again, I’m gonna shoot the son of a b****. You tell him, you fly…No! You tell him he’s gonna get shot down next time he’s that low,” the unidentified caller can be heard saying on the recording.The call was received by a receptionist on Tuesday and local authorities, the FBI and Homeland Security were contacted shortly after.

” Very unnerving,” Tadd Jenkins said. “Our pilot actually didn’t want to go up again.”

Jenkins is not only the owner of the Tadd Jenkins Auto group but also a co-owner of Yellowstone Helicopters. During the fair, Jenkins has been offering people the chance to get a tour of Blackfoot from above.

“It’s truly a bucket list experience,” he said. “Someone comes, they go on a helicopter ride, they get out of there, I’ve never ever had anybody get out that didn’t have a smile from left to right.”

Obviously, all those joy rides make a lot of noise, so there have been some complaints.

“We had another lady came over, said that we were flying over her house a lot, and she wondered if we could alter our plan, alter our flight route, we did,” Jenkins explained.

“We’re not out here to make noise … we’re here to share the experience of this flight with as many people as we can and if we can do that as painlessly to everybody in the public here that’s what we want to do,” helicopter manager Brad Hill added.

Both Jenkins and Hill said they wish the caller had just come over and had a chat instead of potentially committing a federal crime.

“Whether it’s an actual threat or not, you have to treat it as such,” Jenkins said.

Authorities have not released the identity of the caller and are not expected to until the investigation is complete.

The Blackfoot Police Department could not be reached for comment Thursday.