Samaritan’s Purse retires last US-registered DC-8, welcomes Boeing 767 

Samaritan’s Purse, a North Carolina-based Christian humanitarian relief organization known for flying medical teams and emergency supplies into disaster zones worldwide, is retiring the last Douglas DC-8 still on the US register. It is also bringing a Boeing 767 cargo aircraft into service, closing a remarkable chapter in humanitarian aviation and opening what the organization describes as a far more capable one.

Samaritan’s Purse held a decommissioning ceremony on November 14, 2025, at its Airlift Response Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, where it formally parked the DC-8 for the final time and dedicated the 767. The ministry said the event marks a significant shift in how Samaritan’s Purse moves people and supplies into disaster zones as it scales up its aviation operations.  

For more than a decade, the four-engine DC-8 has been the backbone of Samaritan’s Purse airlift work. First acquired in 2015, the jet became the group’s main heavy cargo aircraft, carrying millions of pounds of cargo on more than 200 missions to crisis zones around the world. It was the last DC-8 still flying under a US registration, and one of only a small handful operating anywhere in the world.  

Samaritan’s PurseThe airplane itself has had an unusually long and varied life. Built as airframe number 427 out of 554 DC-8s, it rolled off the line on December 24, 1968, and entered service with Finnair before moving to the French Air Force in the early 1980s. Later it joined Air Transport International, which converted it into a combi layout that could carry 10 cargo pallets along with 32 passengers. Years later, the aircraft ended up parked in the desert in Roswell, New Mexico, the kind of place where airliners often go to be parted out rather than ever fly again. 

According to flight engineer Joe Proffitt, Samaritan’s Purse discovered the DC-8 there after Franklin Graham, the organization’s leader and the son of evangelist Billy Graham, sought a way to build a heavy airlift capability during the Ebola crisis in 2014. The organization bought the aircraft in 2015, sent it to San Antonio, Texas, for a major overhaul and engine upgrade, and then put it back to work as its primary long-range transport. Its first relief mission for Samaritan’s Purse took an emergency field hospital, doctors, nurses, and medical supplies to Ecuador after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in April 2016. 

Proffitt writes that the aircraft quickly earned its nickname inside the organization. To the Mission Aviation Services staff in Greensboro, he says, it was “The Mighty DC-8,” a one-of-a-kind aircraft that carried “more than 9 million pounds of cargo on 217 missions since 2016 — all in the Name of Jesus.” He describes the airplane as “born on Christmas Eve and resurrected from a desert graveyard,” and says, “The Mighty DC-8 has been God’s instrument taking the Gospel message of Jesus Christ throughout the world providing physical relief and spiritual hope to millions of people wherever it touched down.” 

Samaritan’s PurseThe airplane also became a magnet for enthusiasts and plane spotters. Proffitt recalls photographers lining fences to catch it on arrival or departure, and a documentary film maker in Cyprus who climbed into the cockpit and declared, “Now this is a real aircraft! See that airplane that just took off? Nothing but plastic. The DC-8 even smells like a real aircraft!” 

The DC-8’s missions ranged from disaster relief to deeply personal flights. Among Proffitt’s most meaningful sorties were trips returning children and their mothers to Mongolia after lifesaving heart surgery during the Covid-19 pandemic and the mission that carried the 200 millionth Operation Christmas Child shoebox to Poland on its way to a girl displaced by the war in Ukraine. In its final year, he writes, the jet “finished strong” by supporting relief operations in Israel and delivering critical supplies to Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa. 

Samaritan’s PurseEven as its DC-8 retires, Samaritan’s Purse is leaning even heavier into aviation. The organization’s new Boeing 767 has already begun flying major relief missions. The 767’s first airlift on October 24, 2025, carried more than 290,000 packets of supplemental food for women and children in Gaza, along with blankets, solar lights, and other supplies. A subsequent mission to Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa used the 767 to move a full emergency field hospital in a single flight, including an operating room, intensive care unit, emergency room, obstetric ward, laboratory, pharmacy, and blood bank.  The DC-8 anchored a global fleet that has grown to more than 20 aircraft Samaritan’s Purse operates, including two helicopters, a Boeing 757, and now the newly introduced 767 that will carry the ministry’s long-range work forward.

“Aviation is an incredible tool for Samaritan’s Purse. Every one of our cargo planes says ‘Helping in Jesus’ Name’ right across the nose of the aircraft,” said Graham, who serves as President of Samaritan’s Purse. “After a disaster strikes, we want people to know why we are bringing lifesaving supplies. We want them to know that God loves them and they’re not forgotten.”  He added, “God has used this DC-8 cargo plane to impact hundreds of thousands of lives — and He is using it right up to the very end of its service life. As we retire the DC-8, we are grateful to God for the 767 taking its place. It will allow us to transport far more supplies — faster and more effectively — and will continue the work of bringing the hope of the Gospel to people around the world.”  

Samaritan’s PurseFor Proffitt, saying goodbye is personal. After more than 50 missions on the type, he closes his tribute with a line that captures the mood around Greensboro as the engines spool down for the last time: “Farewell N782SP … it is bittersweet to say goodbye.” The post Samaritan’s Purse retires last US-registered DC-8, welcomes Boeing 767  appeared first on AeroTime.

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