Longmont pilot part of Colorado nonprofit's efforts to help sick kids get the care they need

A team of donated airplanes and volunteer pilots, including one from Longmont, have become an answer to the prayers of sick children and their families. 

Colorado-based nonprofit AeroAngel helps people, particularly children, be transported around the country for much needed medical help.

Mark Pestal, an attorney and pilot, started the organization in Denver in 2010 and since then AeroAngel has helped more than 200 children across the country get to medical facilities. The situation has only become more critical with the added COVID-19 risk.  

“All of the people that need these flights are in dire need of this type of transportation. It’s not like they could get on a bus or a commercial flight, it’s very time-sensitive and very important that they’re subject to very little germs. It has to be a very clean environment,” said AeroAngel volunteer pilot Wade Tagg, who is based in Longmont and flies all over the country leaving from Vance Brand Municipal Airport.

Pestal said, “Currently we’re the only group out there where if a child has maybe no immune system and they need to go somewhere they can reach out to us to do the flight. We only do flights for kids who can’t safely travel on a commercial airline flight.”

A pilot since college, Pestal said he was inspired to start AeroAngel when he saw there was a need to help very sick children. From there it evolved into the organization it is today that relies on multiple volunteers to help get the job done.

Tagg became one of those volunteers because the organization was seeking to add a plane like his to its fleet.

“It started with word of mouth when we bought the Phenom, which is the jet that we fly, and was an airplane that Mark Pestal, the owner of AeroAngel, had been looking at to use,” Tagg said of how he got involved with the organization.

“It is an ideally suited platform for us. It can go all across the country,” Pestal, AeroAngel president, said of the impact of adding the Phenom for some of its flights. “We’ve been able to launch out to go pick up a child from a neighboring state and then take a child to a medical facility all the way to the East Coast. It basically has amazing capabilities.”

Tagg said he’s flown around a dozen flights for AeroAngel on the jet, which is owned by Longmont businessman Dale Katechis. Katechis donates the plane, while Tagg donates his time and AeroAngel provides the fuel.

“It’s a little bit different than the other opportunities that are out there for a lot of people. Mark basically picks the flights that require a private jet,” Tagg said of what makes AeroAngel unique compared to similar organizations that provide transportation to those in need. 

The organization recently received some national attention in Flying Magazine in an article highlighting AeroAngel and the work done by similar organizations.

In the article, Tagg discusses how all the flights he’s done for AeroAngel has had an impact on his life, but said there is one that will always stand out: “There was this flight that we did where we kind of included three different trips. It was pretty neat being able to take kids either to the hospital or home from the hospital and we did it all in a tight two-day extravaganza. We went from Longmont all the way to the East Coast and then to California and back to Longmont.”

To learn more about AeroAngel, visit its website.