L-39 Donated to Aerial Angels Raises Breast Cancer Awareness

Aerial Angels is a 501(c)(3) devoted to raising awareness, supporting survivors, and raising funds for breast cancer research. 

Through donations from several generous individual and corporate supporters, the organization received a Czchoslovakian-built Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros fighter jet which was then given its unique paint scheme and transformed into The Pink Jet. The pink color is easily-recognizable as the symbol of the fight against breast cancer and the tail displays the breast cancer support decal.

The Pink Jet made its debut performance on the world stage at this year’s EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in front of record breaking attendance of 686,000 for the week-long event. The group says the jet flies “as a symbol of strength, hope, compassion, and resilience.”

The female pilots who founded The Pink Jet have witnessed family members, colleagues, and friends face the battle of breast cancer. And having several young daughters they decided to combine their passion for aviation with enthusiasm for advancing awareness and encouraging early testing to detect the disease.

The pilots include Heather “Lucky” Penney, who was among the first group of female fighter pilots in the U.S. Air Force, and during the attacks of 9/11 was assigned to take down United Airlines Flight 93. Because their F-16s were not armed meant she and her wingman, Col. Marc “Sass” Sasseville, would have had to sacrifice their own lives by ramming their aircraft into the airliner. Vicky Benzing is a professional air show pilot with more than 10,000 flight hours, skydiver, air racer, and holds an ATP certificate and commercial ratings in helicopters, seaplanes, and gliders. Stephanie Goetz is a pilot and person of many talents, having had successful stints as a tv news and sports anchor, business woman, leadership coach, philanthropist, professional singer, and TEDx speaker. Her mother survived breast cancer, which instilled her passion to support survivors and raise money for research. She is an L-39 instructor pilot and flies a Bombardier Global 6000 for a private jet company. Stephanie was selected to fly the debut performance at AirVenture because of her family’s history with breast cancer.

FMI:  thepinkjet.org/