Angel Flight Northeast requires prospective pilots to attend an orientation. It's flying people who don't know you at all, who have never met you, who are under tremendous stress in their life and who now have to travel by private aircraft, probably for the first time. Sensitivity and communication are buzzwords at the orientation. At Angel Flight Northeast's modest headquarters at the Lawrence Municipal Airport in Massachusetts, Roger D'Entremont is busy on the phone. Angel Flight Northeast coordinates up to 50 missions a week.
Requests generally come in from patients, families, or friends.
Still, the best-laid plans can go awry, and about 20 percent of the missions have to be rescheduled, nearly always because of the weather. A schedule of available flights is also sent via e-mail to pilots, who can choose flights at their convenience. When a pilot agrees to a flight, he is given the patient's name, condition, weight, the weight of whomever the patient is traveling with, the amount of baggage expected, and a telephone contact number. The pilot then calls the patient to discuss details of the flight and answer questions. Before flying, the pilot has the passengers sign a form releasing the organization from liability.