LifeLine Pilots

LifeLine Pilots helps passengers like 3-year-old Aiden. Aiden is battling neuroblastoma for the second time. The costs, both emotional and financial, from the first incidence left the family tapped out. LifeLine Pilots has been able to ease that burden, flying Aiden and his mother from their home in Indiana to Sloan-Kettering in New York. They've become favorites of 4 different volunteer pilots who have donated 14 separate flights.

Founded in 1981 by Wanda Whitsitt of Champaign, IL, LifeLine Pilots’ mission is to facilitate free air transportation for financially distressed passengers with medical and humanitarian needs. LifeLine Pilots began as a small group of pilots in Illinois who envisioned using their special skill of flying to help people with emergencies reach medical centers. Starting with only 40 volunteer pilots, all activity was limited to departing or arriving within the state.

Today, over 9,000 missions at over 6,000,000 charitable miles have been flown by 442 past and present volunteer pilots. The service area has grown to include free air transportation to those traveling between the Rocky Mountains and the East Coast. Partnering with other volunteer pilot organizations makes travel to treatments, appointments, clinical trials and family support a possibility from coast to coast. The flights are FREE. The pilots donate their time, equipment and expertise in an effort to make the world a better place. It is through the generosity of people like YOU that we are able to arrange and expedite no-cost travel, relieving families of a significant responsibility surrounding illness and distress. www.lifelinepilots.org