Angel Flight helps patients with free air transport

CARL JUNCTION, Mo. -- When 12-year-old Jacob Allen of Carl Junction, was badly burned seven years ago, the last thing on his mother's mind was the cost of airfare.

But as Ramona Allen helped her son heal, she realized the rising costs of fuel and airline tickets were going to be a challenge her family would have to tackle.

Jacob was treated at a specialized burn unit in Cincinnati, Ohio, and had to return every few weeks, then months, until his doctor visits were a year apart.

Ramona Allen says her family didn't have that kind of money. But thanks to a network of volunteer pilots with the national Angel Flight organization, Jacob once again landed last week at the Joplin Regional Airport after a doctor's appointment in Cincinnati, and his family didn't have to pay a thing.

"It's awesome," Ramona Allen said of the Angel Flight service. "It's just great."

More than 1,000 volunteer pilots throughout the Midwest donate their time, talents and aircraft expenses to fly passengers who can't afford airline tickets to get medical treatment through Angel Flight Central Inc., based in Kansas City.

The not-for-profit organization provides help to people in need of free air transportation to health-care centers, or distant destinations because of family, community or national crisis.

Ramona says she's paid to fly Jacob to the doctor out of her pocket before, but the price was steep. Airfare would have cost $2,200 for the mother and son to go to a short appointment in Cincinnati last week.

When flying to Cincinnati didn't prove economically realistic, Ramona said she tried driving there, but it took about 12 hours on the road for a 10-minute doctor visit, and it was still expensive.

Last week was the seventh time she's used Angel Flight to get Jacob to the doctor.

Robert Zeitinger, of St. Louis, was the pilot for Jacob's return trip to Joplin, and said he's worked with Angel Flight since it started in 1995. Zeitinger has already made 15 Angel Flight missions this year, and more than 100 since the organization started.

He says he's done at least 100 charity flights for other organizations similar to Angel Flight.

With Angel Flight, pilots donate their time, plane and money to help transport people in tough situations who don't have the money to help themselves. Zeitinger said his four-seater plane uses 12 to 14 gallons of aviation fuel an hour, with the average price of $4.80 a gallon in this area. The flights are truly a donation, an expensive one at that, and Zeitinger said most people realize it.

"Most of them are damn thankful, they really are," Zeitinger said.

But Zeitinger said the true value in the Angel Flight missions is to give the pilot a meaningful purpose for his favorite hobby.

"I like to fly and this is better than flying around a flagpole on a Saturday morning," he said. "This is meaningful; it makes you feel good."

The news is good for Jacob, who doctors say doesn't have to go back to the burn unit for another two years. Jacob is healing and growing. His mother says people are surprised when they see his filled-out frame that he's only 12 years old.

Angel Flight Central is one of seven autonomous members of Air Charity Network, the nation's largest public benefit flying organization representing about 90 percent of charitable non-emergency medical, compassion and community-service flights in the United States.

Last year, Angel Flight Central received more than 5,000 requests for help. An Angel Flight mission takes place every 30 minutes.