A man and his son were airlifted out of the Blue Ridge Parkway Friday evening after their tent was struck by lightning.

The call came in around 1:45 p.m. after a violent thunderstorm swept across Western North Carolina. According to authorities, the two were on a father/son camping trip with an organization based in Hendersonville. They set up a camp site at Iverson Gap Trail, near Graveyard Fields.

During the storm, lightning hit a tree near the tent where the two were taking shelter. The lightning traveled down the tree and to the roots, where the tent was sitting.

Mountain Area Medical Airlift (MAMA) was unable to fly to the location because of inclement weather, so a helicopter from University of Tennessee out of Knoxville came to assist.

Both patients were taken to Mission Hospital in ...