Vanilla Johnson, a refugee of Hurricane Katrina is being lifted out of a Beechcraft Bonanza airplane after an 320 Nautical Mile evacuation flight from Baton Rouge, LA to Dallas Love Field in Dallas TX. Ms Johnson 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 2033 nautical mile round trip to Baton Rouge La from his home airport in Alexandria VA, to Love Field in Dallas Texas and the return flight to Leesburg VA. Out of pocket expenses for the flight were approximately $1,350 for gasoline and maintenance reserves. This was the third such evacuation flight for Fazio.

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

Permission is granted to news media to reprint the photos press release for this and other stories . Photos may be copied and downloaded by right clicking on the photograph.