For Hurricane Relief

Angel Flight Southeast (AFSE) announced Friday that they are looking for pilots to fly post-disaster emergency air missions. With Hurricane Dennis bearing down on the Gulf coast, there may be needs soon.

The Homeland Security Air Transportation System, or HSEATS provides the disaster relief community with a pre-planned, reliable, coordinated system to transport key personnel and small, priority cargo items such as blood to a disaster site.

"We've found that it takes only one minute and 30 seconds after we start the alert system for our pilots to start returning the call to sign up for missions," said Sheri Hutchinson, AFSE Director of Operations. "It's an amazing program, made even more so by the fact that these are all volunteer pilots who donate their time, fuel and planes to provide these flights at no cost to the passenger or client agency."

AFSE was the first organization to utilize volunteer pilots to ensure that water and blood were transported after Hurricanes Francis and Ivan. More than two-dozen HSEATS emergency air missions were coordinated during the two storms.

AFSE typically flies patients to specialized evaluation, diagnosis and treatment that are not provided or adequate near a patient's home, handles all Angel Flight(R) America calls for Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Trained and certified pilots are welcome to join. Registered pilots receive a Homeland Security patch, decal and certificate and participate in annual readiness drills.

FMI: www.angelflightse.org