An angel in the sky
Published: October 8, 2005
A private pilot in town volunteered his time and airplane to fly reunification flights for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
John Rickert has been a volunteer for Angel Flight America since 1999. The mission of the national organization is usually to provide free rides for persons who need to get to medical care. So, Rickert said, this latest mission was right up his alley.
“This is all done by volunteer pilots,” said Rickert. “Some of us have their own planes and some rent them. The missions are done by us, using our own resources.”
Rickert said Angel Flights are traditionally medical flights, taking people with medical needs around the country.
“I often go to northern Maine and pick up patients to bring to Boston,” said Rickert. “I bring children to the University of Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital. I am part of the Northeast group, but there are regional groups around the country.”
During Katrina, Angel Flight America mobilized through its national dispatch center.
“After the evacuation, they started to move volunteers to locations such as Houston and Gulf Port (Mississippi),” said Rickert. “Over a two week period, I flew about five to six flights. I took nurses down to San Antonio. I brought some special-needs people to Atlanta to be reunited with their caregivers. They had gotten separated from them.”
Rickert, who owns a small turboprop plane, also brought people from Mississippi to New York for medical help, including one person who needed a spinal operation and had to be transferred because the hospital in Gulf Port had been damaged.
“There were not a lot of local doctors available,” he said. “Many had relocated with the rest of the evacuees.”
“It’s something I could do,” he said “But, it’s not just me. There were hundreds of us out there.”
Rickert said he keeps his plane at the Pease airfield. Currently it is undergoing a mandated 100-hour maintenance check. The plane can carry up to nine people.
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