Archive
October 06, 2025— HEF-DKX (Manassas, VA to Downtown Knoxville, TN)—This flight was leg 2 of 2 to fly a 53-year-old woman home after having received follow-up after treatment for an incurable cancer in her sacrum to arrest further progression.
Sept. 15, 2025—PGV-2G4 (Greenville, NC to Garrett County, MD) 40-year-old woman, potential heart transplant patient with failing heart, leg 1 of 2, ultimately going to Cleveland Clinic for continued testing to monitor heart failure of transplanted heart to determine if a second transplant is necessary.
Sept. 01, 2025—HEF-MKJ (Manassas, VA to Mountain Empire, Wytheville, VA)—leg 1 of 2 for 20-year-old woman with Medulloblastoma and her mother, returning home in Tullahoma TN, after having come to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital for treatment. Passenger was needing assistance with traveling to her upcoming appointments to for routine disease evaluations and treatment for her brain tumor, and is not comfortable flying commercially or driving.
August 01, 2025—PGV-HEF (Greenville, NC to Manassas, VA)—76-year-old woman with Kidney failure and Crohn’s disease, for testing and lab work for possible kidney transplant.
May 07, 2025—CDW-CMH (Caldwell, NJ to Columbus, OH), stretcher flight—17-year-old girl and her mother returning home after an experimental pain management treatment near Caldwell, NJ. The passenger has been experiencing severe continuous back pain making it impossible to stand up fully and walk without a walker. She also suffers from multiple other syndromes including Chiari, Malformation POTS, SMA Syndrome, and Rheumination syndrome. This flight required a stretcher, which we provided.
February 22, 2025—BKL-LUK (Burke Lakefront Cleveland, OH to Cincinnati, OH)—This was a flight of a 58-year-old woman, an aggressive breast cancer patient. Doctors had found something growing on her brain, and she went to Cleveland Clinic for investigation.
January 23, 2025—Compassion Airlift pilots have flown 11 flights to Jackson County airport at Sylva NC and delivered about 5000 pounds of Hurricane Helene relief supplies including one load of Christmas gifts and supplies for the children. Donna Harris, our contact person in NC, has expressed the community’s appreciation for all of our efforts in making these missions possible. If you were part of the supply collection effort, they thank you. 
December 22, 2024—CHS-CMH (Charleston, SC to Columbus, OH)—17-year-old girl and her mother returning home after surgery to relieve extreme back pain. The passenger has been experiencing severe continuous back pain making it impossible to stand up fully and walk without a walker. She also suffers from multiple other syndromes including Chiari, Malformation POTS, SMA Syndrome, and rheumination syndrome. This flight required a stretcher, which we provided.
October 31, 2024—HEF-24A (Manassas, VA to Silva, NC)—Church-sponsored hurricane relief flight after Hurricane Helene. Various emergency supplies collected by churches in Northern VA were flown to the hurricane-ravaged area near Charlotte, NC. This was the first of 11 flights made October 2024 through January 2025.
October 09, 2024—PWK-CMH (Palwaukee Chicago Reliever to Columbus, OH)—17-year-old girl and her mother returning home after undergoing a specialized MRI. The only MRI machine that allows someone to stand is in the Chicago area. The passenger has been experiencing severe continuous back pain making it impossible to stand up fully and walk without a walker. She also suffers from multiple other syndromes including Chiari, Malformation POTS, SMA Syndrome, and rheumination syndrome. This flight required a stretcher, which we provided.
February 16, 2024—JYO-ROA (Leesburg, VA to Roanoke, VA)—45-year-old woman with Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy, Fibromyalgia, Neurotrophy, Narcolepsy with Cataplexy, Sleep Apnea— subscribed with BiPap, and others, traveling home after checkup with doctor in Northern VA.
July 25, 2023—Compassion Airlift, pilots Gene Cross and Dan Radtke accepted a mission to fly a patient traveling from Norfolk VA (ORF) to Morristown NJ (MMU) to undergo evaluation due to a rare brain disease accompanied by epilepsy. She was mobile and in good spirits and had never flown in a small airplane.
July 20, 2023—BQI-FCI (Buffalo/Manchester, NY to Chesterfield Co (Richmond, VA)—31-year-old man was in an accident that occurred far from home and was hospitalized in Buffalo, NY. He was transported home along with his mother to a rehab hospital in Richmond, VA. The flight required a stretcher.
July 12, 2023—After many years with Compassion Airlift, pilots Gene Cross and Dan Radtke had the opportunity to fly a mission that used the full capability of our Bonanza—both in payload and range. They were tasked to carry a young lady who had experienced a fall which broke her neck and paralyzed her from the neck down making her totally immobile. The pilots positioned the aircraft the prior afternoon at Dekalb-Peachtree airport outside Atlanta and received Heather and her mother Wednesday morning at 9 AM. Their first leg was a 2.5 hour flight up the Appalachian mountain chain and the Shenandoah Valley for a refueling stop at Winchester VA. From there another 2.5 hour flight to Marshfield MA, 45 miles south of Boston.
It was a smooth flight around Philadelphia, New York City and across New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts being given descents and climbs through the busy airspace. Arrival at Marshfield airport was a pleasant experience as it is a rural field with little traffic. The transport ambulance was waiting for their arrival and quickly took Heather to her receiving facility. “Overall, a very rewarding flight flown as designed with a perfectly operating aircraft.”
February 9, 2023—Pilots Gene Cross and Dan Radtke were privileged to fly to Islip, NY (ISP), to pick up Ashton and transport him to his home in Winston Salem, NC (INT), after treatment at the Cleveland Clinic in New York City. 65-knot headwinds reduced their expected airspeed from 150 knots to 90 knots and required an additional fuel stop at Shenandoah, VA (SHD). The winds and extra stop extended their planned enroute time so they landed after dark. Clear skies gave the pilots a beautiful view of the Appalachian Mountains and Roanoke Valley on their return flight the following day.
February 20, 2023—Compassion Airlift received Colleen, who was flown from Conway, SC, to Manassas, VA (HEF), through a mission coordinated by Angel Flight East. Pilots Dan Radtke and Rick Moss transported her to her destination in Fitchburg, MA (FIT). She is experiencing a brain ailment and returning home to be near treatment in the Boston area hospitals. “Thank you so much for your generosity, kindness, care, for flying me to my final destination of Fitchburg, Mass,” writes Colleen in a beautiful card given to the pilots after her successful flight.
February 24, 2023—Pilots Gene Cross and Rick Moss flew Brian from a connection in Winston Salem, NC (INT), to his home in Harrisburg, PA (CXY). The flight was coordinated by Angel Flight East, and Brian was returning home after treatment for pancreatic cancer at a center near Atlanta. He has been receiving these treatments every two weeks over the last two years, all made possible by Angel Flight. Our flight connected with an Angel Flight SOARS flight originating in Newnan, GA. A grateful Brian presented the pilots with a unique thank you card. “One thing’s for certain…I couldn’t have made this trip without you! Thank you so much for thinking enough of me to help me get to my treatment. It was a pleasure riding with you. May God bless you one-thousand fold.”
January 06, 2023—Compassion Airlift pilots Rick Moss and Dan Radtke graciously volunteered their time and resources to transport Matt and his wife, Aimee, from Easton, MD (ESN) to Greenville, SC (GMU) on the second half of an Angel Flight East mission that originated in Boston, MA. They were met at the airport by their excited young children and Matt’s father. Matt was in Boston for specialized treatment of a rare form of lung cancer. The pilots received a heartfelt thank you note from the family, “We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your generosity…the help you and the service is providing really helps.” “After initial concerns for wind and icing conditions, it turned out to be a pretty nice day,” commented Rick.
On March 22, 2019, Compassion Airlift pilots Mike Pearson and Chuck Van Nostrand, who generously donated their time and financial resources, began a three-day mission to transport Jim, a high school teacher and his wife Christel, from New York to their home near North Palm Beach, FL. Because of the length of the flight, the pilots pre-positioned in New York on the 22nd, flew the couple to Florida on the 23rd, and made the return flight to Manassas, VA, on the 24th. The couple had been vacationing when Jim shattered his hip skiing. After his surgery, Jim couldn’t sit up for any period of time which meant a long car ride or commercial flight were out of the question. For several days after Jim was released from the hospital they desperately searched for a way home, an air ambulance was cost prohibitive. Finally, Jim and Christel were connected with Compassion Airlift through our partnership with PALS, an organization that arranges transportation for individuals who cannot afford or are unable to fly commercially. Because Compassion Airlift has the only single-engine aircraft in the eastern US with an FAA-approved stretcher system installed for patients who need to recline during flight, we were uniquely positioned to help—at no cost to the couple. Post-flight Christel said, “We are extremely thankful for [Mike’s] and Chuck’s help with this flight and we are happy to be home so Jim can start his recovery.”
Meet Seth and his Mom, Lori. Seth has been fighting the progressive genetic disease of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy since his diagnosis at the tender age of 3 years. Lori has been his caretaker and cheerleader for his entire life. Seth is a vibrant engaging teenager with a quick wit and contagious sense of humor. The courage of this Mother/Son team is hard to miss. Lori explained that the form of muscular dystrophy that Seth inherited is very rare and there are only a few treatment centers in the United States. That’s why the family had to relocate to Lynchburg, VA, to be closer to treatment for Seth. Pilot Rick Moss and Mission Assistant Peggy Doyle flew this courageous duo to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital on October 23, 2017 for Seth’s regular treatments. They were delivered back home by pilots Mike Pearson and Bob McCamish.
In July 2017, Compassion Airlift transported an 18-year old with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, from Shirley, New York on Long Island, to Martinsville, Virginia. His mother accompanied him on the flight. In lieu of a $20,000 air ambulance, a painful 12-hour car ride would have been the only option for transporting this young man if our stretcher equipped Bonanza had not been available. The city of Shirley furnished the ambulance transport to the airport. There was an ambulance standing by for the ground transport as we arrived in Martinsville.