Patricia Ellington of Wilmington NC being helped out of a Beechcraft Bonanza airplane after an 718 Nautical Mile evacuation flight from Baton Rouge, LA to Wilmington, NC. Ms Ellington was transported as a medical evacuation refugee from the Louisiana State University Special Needs Medical Shelter after Hurricane Katrina by Charles Fazio of Alexandria VA as part of "Operation Teacup" a group of volunteer pilots, organized to "help drain the swamp of refugees"

Fazio, paid his own expenses for the aircraft for the 1849 nautical mile round trip to Baton Rouge La from his home airport in Alexandria VA, to Wilmington NC and the return flight to Leesburg VA. Out of pocket expenses for the flight were approximately $1,200 for gasoline and maintenance reserves

Operation Teacup is operated out of Charlottesville, VA by Fred Quarles, another pilot volunteer, who organized the group of aircraft owners to fly emergency evacuations, from a membership list of over 3,000 pilots provided by "Baldy Ivy" of Seligman Arizona from his website http://www.pilotsharetheride.com

The aircraft owners volunteered for these missions on short notice, one of which was arranged and in flight lin less than one hour, to re-unite a man in Houston with his family in Baton Rouge.. The group has flown over 40,000 passenger miles

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