The Flying Samaritans  The Flying Samaritans is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing free health care for underserved populations in Baja California, Mexico. The organization consists of ten different chapters, each with up to eight branches, that all operate a medical clinic in Baja California. Volunteer students, doctors, nurses, pilots, and other health professionals travel with their Flying Samaritans branch to their respective clinic locations and run anywhere from one-day to weekend long clinics on a monthly basis. Now with more than 1500 members the Flying Samaritans mission has spread broadly across California, Arizona, and Baja California. The Flying Samaritans' organization has four main principles: to provide primary care, specialty care, education, and emergency care. Each branch operates slightly differently, however, all strive to attain the same goal in improving healthcare outcomes for the underserved populations of Baja California. To enliven the first tenant of their mission each branch provides quality primary care to those populations that would otherwise have none. Most of the Flying Samaritans clinics are located in areas in which medical services are sparse, and therefore primary care through their clinic is essential. Those branches that do provide specialty care, such as surgery, operate in areas in which follow up is provided to ensure quality services are implemented. In order to attain educational outcomes the Flying Samaritans' branches work both to educate their volunteers, who in many instances are pre-health professionals, but also to educate their populations in order to provide more preventative and sustainable care. Some branches work specifically with pasantes who are first-year Mexican medical students that must fulfill a one-year government requirement in order to graduate medical school. Finally, emergency care is provided through disaster relief and other critical medical needs at various clinic locations. On November 16, 1961, a group of six passengers, and a pilot by the name of Aileen Saunders, took off from La Paz, Baja California, Mexico. Headed for San Diego, the crew was forced to stop short when they unexpectedly encountered adverse weather along their course. After a stop in Bahia de Los Angeles, Aileen hit dust storms preventing her from landing in Tijuana or San Diego. She decided to land in Ensenada for the time being, but within three minutes of landing she suddenly could not see the ground as well as the 5,000 to 7,000 foot peaks in the area. Forced to circle the area avoiding the peaks, they eventually flew over the storm, and decided to land on a strip outside of the El Rosario community.