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 mor

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