Volunteer Pilots Provide Free Flights For Sick Kids To Receive Life-Saving Medical Care
Volunteer pilots are doing their part to help seriously ill children receive life-saving medical care.
They are able to do this through a charity called AeroAngel, where they provide free flights to these sick kids who need to travel to hospitals and treatment centers that are far away.
Many of the children have some type of cancer and many have weak immune systems that prevent them from being able to travel in crowded environments such as large airport terminals.
Since commercial airline travel is not a safe option for these kids, AeroAngel uses only private jets flown by a crew of professional pilots, so that the kids are able to avoid these crowded places and arrive at the hospital with little to no risk.
AeroAngel, which is based in Denver, Colorado, was founded in early 2010 by Mark Pestal, a commercial pilot and attorney.
Pestal was always passionate about aviation and also wanted to help others, which is what led him to create this unique model of using volunteer professional pilots to fly high-performance aircrafts. The owners of these planes donate use of them to the charity.
So far, AeroAngel has helped more than 250 children from all over the United States in the past 12 years, and has provided more than $2.5 million dollars in in-kind services.
If you know someone in need of an AeroAngel flight, please contact them at info@aeroangel.org.
Learn more about AeroAngel, their mission, and how they help sick children in the video below:
