DEL.ICIO.USAngel Flight pilot, 77, delivers for those in need
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Pilot Mack Secord has been a pilot for Angel Flight for more than 25 years, making him one of its longest-serving volunteers.
The nonprofit transportation service shuttles patients to doctors and hospitals across the country. This month, the 77-year-old continued his efforts by helping return two metro Atlanta residents home after a 10-week medical stay in Miami.
Jason Getz/jgetz@ajc.com
The sunset shines on Buckhead pilot Mack Secord after he picks up two Angel Flight passengers in Albany earlier this month from his base at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. Secord has made more than 100 of the missions of mercy.
Jason Getz/jgetz@ajc.com
Little Shalaja Henry is recovering from a multi-organ transplant in March.
Jason Getz/jgetz@ajc.com
Angel Flight pilot Mack Secord of Buckhead and Shamalla Simmonds of Austell put 2-year-old Shalaja Henry in Secord’s 1975 Cessna 182 Skylane to depart Southwest Georgia Regional Airport in Albany for the final leg of a trip by Angel Flight to get mother and daughter to the baby’s transplant doctors in Miami and back home.
Secord’s flight was the third of a three-leg trip that Austell’s Shamalla Simmonds and 2-year-old daughter Shalaja Henry took that day. Shalaja went to Miami for a checkup after being sick because of a multiple organ transplant she had in March. “This was our only option to fly,” said Simmonds. ” Every time we’ve needed them, [Angel Flight has] been able to come through for us.”
Secord also has earned the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, given by the Federal Aviation Administration to aviators with more than 50 years of flights without accidents, incidents or violations. Secord said the favorite part of his recent trip was “getting the mother and child back to Atlanta safely without any bumps. I’m happy to be of service for them.” A service that he has performed more than 100 times for those in need.
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