Angel Flight West: Free Flights to Medical Care
By Angel Flight West
About Angel Flight West
Transportation challenges create one of the most daunting barriers to healthcare—a barrier second only to the cost. As a volunteer-driven, nonprofit organization, Angel Flight West’s volunteer pilots fly people to their medical appointments at no cost to the passenger.
Angel Flight West has spent four decades—and provided more than 100,000 flights—creating pathways to healthcare across the Western United States, arranging donated flights to people in need, and providing them safe passage to and from medical care. On the ground, Earth Angels drive passengers from the airport to the medical facility, also free of cost.
Meet Passenger Lucie
Lucie has been flying with Angel Flight West since 2018, with 57 angel flights to date. She received a double lung transplant in 2021 that saved her life — an operation she says marks her “new birthday,” a second chance to live the fullest life possible.
In addition to flying Lucie to the University of Washington in time to receive the transplant three years ago, AFW’s network of volunteer pilots continue to ensure she can reach her essential post-transplant medical care. Her son Christopher says, “My mother Lucie is the patient for whom we travel with Angel Flight West to Seattle. She has repeatedly expressed her gratitude to the pilots, to me in conversation, and to others for the service provided by Angel Flight West.” You can meet Lucie by watching her story at www.angelflightwest.org/lucie.
More about Washington Services
Angel Flight West partners with healthcare facilities in Washington to help patients find out about free flight services to medical care. So far in 2024, 32 Washington volunteer pilots have donated 114 flights to help people access their essential treatment. That’s more than 300 hours of flying time donated to provide health and hope to people who might otherwise miss critical appointments. You can learn more about last year’s total impact in Angel Flight West’s 2023 annual report at www.angelflightwest.org/annual-report.
Requesting a Flight
Though best known for linking passengers to valuable medical resources, Angel Flight West also provides transportation for other humanitarian purposes, such as individuals and families escaping domestic violence, disaster relief, therapeutic programs for veterans, and children’s specialty camps. Angel Flight West provides air transportation within and across 12 western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. You can request a flight at www.angelflightwest.org/need-a-flight, call (310) 390-2958, or email info@angelflightwest.org.
Photo caption: For one of Lucie’s most recent flights, Command Pilot Scott Vickers of the Washington wing flew Lucie from her home in Chewelah, Wash. to her medical care at UW Medicine. Volunteer pilots make a difference each day, ensuring health care is only an angel flight away!