Helicopter pilot saves 17 people from Tennessee flood

Joel Boyers rescues people from a rooftop (Jeani Rice-Cranford via AP)

A helicopter pilot who had just helped his fiancee to earn her pilot’s licence has spoken of his daring rescue of 17 people stranded on rooftops by rising floodwaters in Tennessee.

Nashville-based Joel Boyers said he had prayed for God to show him his life had meaning just days before the phone call came from a desperate woman looking for someone to help her brother and his family who were stranded on a rooftop in Waverly.