Kuangwei Hwang

The Santa Monica airport is located mere minutes away from world-class medical facilities, making it a natural location for the headquarters of Angel Flight West, an organization that works with volunteer pilots to provide free medical transportation to people in need. Hwang, who works as head of platform engineering at a tech company, picks up any flight he can, often working the night shift to get passengers back home after their treatment with another pilot picking up the morning shift.

“They’ll call and say we need a patient picked up from UCLA, or Cedars-Sinai [hospitals], usually, before I can even respond, someone else picked it up,” Hwang said of the strong local support for the program. “Some days, I ask, and they say, ‘yes, please, take it,’ and I say I can be there at 5 p.m., and I go in after work.”

In addition to Angel Flight West, Hwang also donates his time to the California Disaster Airlift Response Team (CalDART), which works to create “air bridges” during natural disasters. Hwang has worked with CalDART to fly in critical medications and supplies to areas that lose major highway access following natural disasters.

Hwang has built countless memories over the years out of Santa Monica Airport, including flying his dad. Most recently, he was able to take a flight with his infant son who “took it like a trooper. He didn’t cry at all; he smiled the whole time.”

He owns a Cirrus SR22T and Cessna 172 that he keeps hangared at the airport. Between all his volunteer flying, the airport has taken on a special meaning to him.

“Santa Monica Airport is super important and dear to my heart. It’s a home airport to me.”

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