Delivering Aid and Hope: Embry-Riddle Bids Farewell to Last U.S. DC-8

Airframe 427 of 554 rolled off the McDonnell Douglas assembly line in Long Beach, California, on December 24, 1968.

Over the next four decades, the plane flew passengers for Finnair, joined the French Air Force’s fleet and carried cargo for U.S.-based Air Transport International.

Purchased by humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse about ten years ago, the DC-8 has since airlifted over 9 million pounds of food and medical supplies around the globe to places devastated by natural disasters, disease and conflict.

For the plane’s flight mechanic, Andy Farrell, the aircraft’s final role delivering aid was foreseen when its data plate was stamped with December 24.

“To think its date of manufacture is Christmas Eve,” he said. “God knew.”

This month, Samaritan’s Purse retired the plane, the last remaining Douglas DC-8 in service in the United States. In November, the workhorse made a final stop at Daytona Beach International Airport, where Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students and other aviation enthusiasts got to walk through its fuselage and look under its wings.  

 “This aircraft is 57 years old and has 100,000 operating hours on it, but I would ride it anywhere in the world,” said Farrell, who earned a master’s degree in Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle in 1997.

For the plane’s crew, many of whom are Embry-Riddle alumni, the stop was bittersweet. They were proud to show off the DC-8. But they were also sad to see it go after a decade of delivering “help to people in need and giving them hope,” said Andrew Klischer, who is captain of the DC-8 and earned a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Studies in 1983.

Klischer said that having Embry-Riddle as one of the plane’s final destinations was “a great way to honor the aircraft.” More than 1,000 people came out to see the DC-8, the main attraction during the university’s Mission Aviation Day, said Peyton Strikeleather, a senior pursuing his bachelor’s in Aviation Business Administration and the event’s organizer.

“Having the DC-8, with its Embry-Riddle alumni crew, alongside other aircraft helped us highlight and expose students to an often overlooked area of aviation that allows individuals to use their unique skills to do good and serve those in need,” he said.

Loadmaster Mike Embree said he will miss the smell of the DC-8.

Embree, who has flown some 50 missions with Samaritan’s Purse, admitted that it must sound strange to miss the scent of a plane. 

“But I walk into this plane every day,” he said. “When I go in the cargo area, it just smells like home.”

The DC-8’s first mission for Samaritan’s Purse came in 2016, airlifting medical supplies and personnel to Ecuador after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the South American country.

Since that inaugural flight, the plane has flown more than 210 missions. This includes providing aid to hurricane-ravaged regions of Puerto Rico and Mozambique, landing in Italy amid the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic and carrying medical workers and supplies to conflict zones.

Embree described a recent mission airlifting a hospital to Myanmar after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the Southeast Asian country in March. That mission was among the most logistically complicated, said Embree, who earned a bachelor’s degree in Professional Aeronautics in 1996 and spent time as an Air Force ROTC instructor at the Prescott Campus.

“The hospital goes on the plane in Canada, and it’s packed in crates,” he said. “And then we flew it all the way around the world to Bangkok and then to Myanmar — dropped it off and finally made our way back,” he said.

Flight engineer Joe Proffitt, who holds a master’s degree in Aeronautical Science and a bachelor’s degree in Professional Aeronautics, said each mission presents a new challenge “because it’s new every time we go.”

“We need to make sure we can land safely, offload the freight and get out of there,” he said.

The DC-8 has a range of 7,000 nautical miles, equivalent to a nonstop flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Tokyo, Japan. It can haul up to 74,000 pounds and has seats for 32 passengers.

Proffitt remembered fondly a flight to Mongolia, where the plane carried children receiving care through the aid organization’s Children’s Heart Project.

“This was during COVID, and we took the mothers and the children back to their country so that they could join up with their families,” he said. “That was a special moment.”

Proffitt has over 50 years in aviation and has been on a DC-8 since 1997.

“It’s a sad day for me because there’s no other plane that we have that needs a flight engineer, so my flying days are over as far as big planes,” he said.

In early December, the plane made its final aid flight, landing in Jamaica. The Caribbean island nation is still recovering from a powerful Category 5 hurricane that struck in late October and left entire communities demolished.

The DC-8 delivered more than 9,000 shoebox gifts to children for Christmas.