(QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Whatever happened to Samaritan’s Purse’s historic DC-8? The plane with its MO, “Helping in Jesus’ name,” prominently displayed across her nose?
It was based out of Greensboro’s Piedmont Triad International Airport. Through humanitarian aid, the jet logged more than 55 million miles and 100,000 flight hours, transporting more than 9 million pounds of lifesaving cargo to communities affected by disasters in more than 100 countries around the world. Last fall, Chief Transportation Correspondent and Pilot Maycay Beeler met with two of her missionary pilots to say farewell. The plane had reached its service life. But where the plane is spending her retirement years?
The Samaritan’s Purse ministry donated the DC-8 aircraft with the higher calling, N782SP, to Liberty University, known as the world’s premier Christian university. This plane was the last flying U.S.-registered DC-8 before she retired last December, taking her final flight to Lynchburg, Virginia, where she will be prominently displayed.
Higher Calling: Samaritan’s Purse pilots deliver to disaster zones, including WNC
All thanks to a grant from Boeing Aircraft Company, funds will be used to support the construction of a public pavilion on the site of the university’s planned DC-8 overlook at Preston Glenn Field at Lynchburg Regional Airport…