Samaritan’s Purse will retire its Douglas DC-8 cargo aircraft Friday at a ceremony at its Airlift Response Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, concluding more than a decade of global relief missions. First acquired in 2015 and based at Piedmont Triad International Airport, the 1968 DC-8-72CF served as the organization’s primary heavy-lift aircraft, transporting more than 9.2 million pounds of life-saving supplies on 217 missions to locations such as Haiti, Ukraine, Ethiopia, and the Bahamas. Known as a combi aircraft, the DC-8 could fly with up to 74,000 pounds of cargo and 32 passengers, the organization said. Samaritan’s Purse said the aircraft is the last U.S.-registered DC-8 still in operation.
The aircraft became a cornerstone of Samaritan’s Purse’s aviation arm, which operates more than 20 aircraft worldwide, including two helicopters, a Boeing 757, and now a newly commissioned Boeing 767. The DC-8 was credited with delivering Emergency Field Hospitals, clean water systems, and critical supplies to disaster zones across six continents.
“Aviation is an incredible tool for Samaritan’s Purse,” said Franklin Graham, president of the organization. “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.”
This morning, the Samaritan's Purse DC-8 cargo plane departed from our Airlift Response Center in Greensboro, North Carolina—loaded with approximately 40,000 pounds of critical relief supplies and dozens of additional Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) members bound for… pic.twitter.com/J7Q5G0GZWP
— Samaritan's Purse (@SamaritansPurse) October 31, 2025
That replacement, the Boeing 767, began operations on Oct. 24 with its first airlift carrying more than 290,000 packets of supplementary food, 12,000 blankets and 12,000 solar lights to families in Gaza before being deployed weeks later to bring a large mobile emergency field hospital to Jamaica in response to Hurricane Melissa.
The hospital included an operating room, ICU, emergency room, obstetric ward, laboratory, pharmacy and blood bank, Samaritan’s Purse said. This was the first time the organization was able to transport an entire large emergency field hospital in just one flight, thanks to its new 767. The organization also deployed its DC-8 to Jamaica to transport emergency response personnel and an additional 40,000 pounds of relief supplies.
We praise the Lord for all that He is doing through our Emergency Field Hospital in Jamaica. We are continuing to serve patients through our ER, provide critical surgeries, and share the love of Christ through this facility.
— Samaritan's Purse (@SamaritansPurse) November 10, 2025
🙏 Please continue to pray for those affected by… pic.twitter.com/7seJTrIPg6
Samaritan’s Purse said the new aircraft’s size and range will allow it to move larger volumes of relief supplies faster and more efficiently, enhancing its ability to respond wherever disaster strikes.
Onward, Christian Soldiers … Proud of the Graham organization in my home state of NC. What other privately-funded religious organization has done anything like this? Christians are amazing people, quietly changing the world for the better, and growing at record numbers around the world.
Got a tour of this DC-8 at Oshkosh this year. Great group of people doing good work.
The Good Samaritan is truly a world leader in disaster relief aid around the world. This organization acts faster, more efficient, better organized than the United Nations Relief Agency. The United States leads the way in providing disaster relief in the world as well as Israel. You don’t see Russia, China or North Korea providing disaster relief.