The First Rule of Angel Flight …

Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Angel Flight West in a nonprofit organization passionately and protractedly about the mission of providing free emergency medical transportation to patients in need of such.

Angel Flight West’s website succinctly explains: “If you have a rare condition, require specialized medical treatment or surgery, have a difficult to diagnose condition, or have a child with a rare or serious illness, you may need to travel a long distance to a center of excellence facility.”

The website continues: “While the cost of the treatment is often covered by the health insurance, the cost of travel rarely is. The cost of travel is a barrier for many people in getting the healthcare they need for themselves or their children. If the cost of transportation is a challenge for you, Angel Flight may be able to help you by arranging free medical flights.”

On 30 October 2023, Angel Flight West marked its one-hundred-thousandth mission by transporting cancer survivor and liver transplant recipient Luis Peña, 12, and his mother, Maria Pérez.

Diagnosed with cancer at age four, Peña’s lifetime has been punctuated by regular use of Angel Flight’s services. Since undergoing a liver transplant at UCLA Health, the young man has continued to travel aboard the organization’s aircraft, which convey him and his mother from their home in San Diego to Santa Monica, where he receives post-transplant care.

Luis, who refers to the team at Angel Flight West as his family, loves aircraft and flying, and hopes one day to become a pilot himself.

The first leg of the milestone flight was piloted by long-time AFW volunteer aviator Rob Ross, who flew Peña and his mother from the San Diego’s Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF) to Santa Monica Airport (SMO) in his Piper PA-46 Meridian. Ross has volunteered his aircraft and piloting skills to AFW for more than three decades.

The return trip to MYF saw Peña and his mother transferred into the care and capable hands of special guest and newly-minted Angel Flight West volunteer pilot Edward Norton (American History “X,” Fight Club, Red Dragon). During a press conference pertaining to the mission, Norton, a three-time Academy Award nominee, stated: “It’s really cool listening to what everyone here is saying about this organization and it makes me only regret that I didn’t know more about it sooner and I think that the mission of amplifying what you guys are doing and getting more people involved is a really worthy one and I’m really happy to lean into that with you.”

Following the press conference, Norton and fellow pilot and friend Michael Langston, flew Peña and his mother back to MYF in Norton’s Cessna U206F Stationair.

Angel Flight West executive director Josh Olson remarked: "This is a really special occasion, and we stand on the backs of lots of others that have come before us, and we're passing that torch on here today,”

Olson, whose stint with Angel Flight West began twenty-years ago, when he joined the organization as a volunteer pilot, added: “Our big needs are volunteer pilots, awareness, outreach to both health care, aviation communities, and the patients that need us, and funds and so that’s what we’re here today to celebrate so our next one-hundred-thousand missions don’t take us forty years to complete.”

FMI: www.angelflightwest.org