The retirement of the last DC-8 marks the end of US DC-8 operations and the beginning of a new chapter for Samaritan’s Purse as it expands its capabilities with a modern, long-range freighter.
Samaritan’s Purse marked the end of an aviation era on Friday, 14 November 2025, during a combined retirement and dedication ceremony at the organization’s Airlift Response Center in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The faith-based humanitarian and global relief organization officially retired its McDonnell Douglas DC-8, the last remaining US-registered DC-8 still in service, while dedicating a newly refurbished Boeing 767 that will now take its place as the organization’s primary heavy-lift aircraft.
The moment carried tremendous weight for both aviation history and humanitarian relief work. For nearly a decade, the Samaritan’s Purse DC-8, registration N782SP, served as one of the most capable and dependable assets in the organization’s global disaster response efforts. Its retirement marks the end of a service life that spanned almost 57 years and helped propel the humanitarian fleet into a new era of expanded capability.
A Humanitarian Workhorse That Defined a Decade of Relief
Since acquiring the aircraft in 2015, Samaritan’s Purse has relied on N782SP as its flagship disaster response aircraft. Over the course of a decade, the DC-8 carried more than 9 million pounds of relief supplies across 217 humanitarian missions.
Its first mission came in 2016, less than 24 hours after receiving its final FAA sign-off, when it was launched to Ecuador following a 7.8-magnitude earthquake.
Its final assignment took place on 3 November 2025, delivering aid to Kingston, Jamaica, after Hurricane Melissa struck the island nation as a Category 5 monster.
N782SP has a story that spans continents and careers. Rolling off the Douglas assembly line in Long Beach as airframe number 427 of 554 on 24 December 1968, it began its career with Finnair before being sold to the French Air Force, which upgraded the aircraft from a DC-8-62 to a DC-8-72 with more efficient CFM-56 engines. Later, it joined Air Transport International in Ohio, where it was converted into a combi configuration that allowed a mix of cargo and personnel. When its cargo career came to an end, it was stored in Roswell, New Mexico, until Samaritan’s Purse acquired it and returned it to service in 2015.
Today, the aircraft has logged nearly 100,000 flight hours, a figure that reflects both the durability of the DC-8 design and the decades when the type dominated cargo operations worldwide. Many cargo pilots recall a time when DC-8s were a common sight across the industry, even as passenger airlines moved to new widebody aircraft. By the early 2000s the type had become increasingly rare, and by 2020, only two remained operational in the United States: the NASA research aircraft and the Samaritan’s Purse freighter.
With NASA’s retirement of its airframe in April 2024, N782SP became the final active US-registered DC-8.
For a faith-based humanitarian organization, the aircraft’s Christmas Eve production date also carries symbolic meaning. As one member of the aviation team put it, the aircraft’s birthday feels fitting for a platform that has become a tool for serving people in crisis in Jesus’ name.
A New Era Begins with the Boeing 767
Standing beside the retired DC-8 during the ceremony was its successor, a newly dedicated Boeing 767-300F registered N367SP. The 20-year-old freighter, MSN 33510, was delivered new to All Nippon Airways in 2006 and later joined the Qantas Freight fleet in 2011. Samaritan’s Purse purchased the aircraft in February 2025 and staged it at Phoenix Goodyear Airport before ferrying it in July to the organization’s Mission Aviation Services headquarters at Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO) in Greensboro.
The 767 entered service on 25 October 2025 with an inaugural mission to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport (TLV), delivering life-saving supplies for women and children in Gaza. Loaded with 290,000 packets of supplementary food along with blankets, solar lights, and other urgent items, the flight demonstrated the dramatic increase in carrying capacity the 767 brings to the organization. Shortly afterward, the aircraft flew relief missions to Jamaica in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, and it has already made multiple return trips.
One of the biggest advantages of the 767 is its ability to airlift the Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospital in a single flight. The portable hospital includes an operating room, intensive care unit, emergency room, obstetric ward, laboratory, pharmacy, and blood bank. Previously, transporting the full hospital required multiple aircraft or trips. With the 767, the organization can now respond more quickly and more effectively to large-scale disasters.
The flagships of the Samaritan’s Purse fleet are now the Boeing 757 and the newly commissioned 767. Between the 757, 767, and DC-8, Samaritan’s Purse has completed seven relief missions to Jamaica.
Continuing the Mission
As with every aircraft in the Samaritan’s Purse fleet, both the retiring DC-8 and the new 767 carry the organization’s message on the nose: Helping in Jesus’ Name.
We do everything in Jesus’ Name.
Franklin Graham | President, Samaritan’s Purse
“We do everything in Jesus’ Name,” said Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham. “We want our focus to always be on Christ, so we put that on the nose and the cross on the tail. We go in Jesus’ Name. 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.
After a disaster strikes, we want people to know why we are bringing life-saving supplies. We want them to know that God loves them and they are not forgotten. 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.”
The DC-8’s Final Footprints Around the World
While N782SP was the last active US-registered DC-8, at least two airframes remain on the books internationally.
The best-documented example is OB-2231-P, a Peruvian-registered DC-8-60/70 operated by Skybus Jet Cargo. The 56-year-old freighter, originally delivered to Air Canada in 1970, currently flies routes between the United States, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Recent flights show the aircraft operating between Miami International Airport (MIA) and Toussaint Louverture International Airport (PAP) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Skybus also owns another DC-8 that is inactive and stored in Kingman Airport (IGM) in Arizona.
One additional aircraft, a DC-8 operated by Trans Air Cargo Service in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is listed as active under registration 9S-AJO. Its operational status is unclear, and recent flight activity is difficult to confirm.
If the Congo aircraft is inactive, the Skybus freighter may be the final operational DC-8 anywhere in the world. Even if both remain flying, the number has dwindled from five active examples just four years ago to only a couple today.
The End of One Era and the Start of Another
The retirement of N782SP closes a 66-year chapter that began in 1959, when the DC-8 first entered service. Over that span, 556 airframes were built, and the type served commercial airlines, governments, scientists, cargo carriers, and humanitarian organizations. For Samaritan’s Purse, the DC-8 was more than an airplane. It was a lifeline that connected people in crisis with essential resources, including food, water, medicine, shelter, and hope.
With the 767 now taking over that role, the mission will move forward with greater capacity and a wider reach. The aircraft that Samaritan’s Purse affectionately called the “Mighty DC-8” has touched down for the last time, but the lives it uplifted and the hope it delivered will remain woven into the organization’s story forever.
