Missionary aircraft damaged during Haiti evacuation trip

An aircraft flown by a U.S.-based missionary aviation organization suffered extensive damage Friday morning after it made a gear-up landing in Haiti. No one was hurt. The Cessna F-406 twin-engine, turbo-prop aircraft is operated by Florida-based Agape Flights. Two pilots were aboard the aircraft. There were no passengers. Tim Kenny, director of donor relations and development for Agape, said Friday afternoon that the organization was still trying to determine what happened. It seemed that the landing gear wouldn’t come down and “it became, in effect, a belly landing,” he said. Kenny said it was unclear why the landing gear did not deploy.

Isn’t the situation in Haiti chaotic, with gangs attacking major airports? Kenny would not identify the location of the landing in Haiti, but said they were in an area of Haiti that is “relatively safe.” The two pilots on Friday remained stranded, but efforts were underway to retrieve them. He said Agape was consulting with numerous partners throughout the region, as well as private and commercial aviation companies, and hoped to retrieve the pilots within days. The now-damaged aircraft had previously been scheduled to evacuate missionaries out of Haiti Friday afternoon, Kenny said.

How are missionary aviators working amidst the violence? Agape typically makes weekly round-trip flights from Florida to Haiti. It resumed flights in Haiti on March 22, after being unable to fly for three weeks due to political instability. Since flights resumed, the service has typically flown cargo into Haiti and evacuated Agape-affiliated missionaries to the states on the return flight, Kenny said.

What’s next for Agape? Friday’s incident heightened the pressure to get people out of Haiti quickly. The damaged aircraft is one of only two airplanes operated by Agape, and is the only one that can be used for evacuations. Kenny said the repairs will likely take more than just a few days. “There’s no time to spare,” he said. The plane’s next scheduled flight, on Tuesday, is now canceled. The incident comes just two years after Agape lost an aircraft due to violence in Haiti. In that incident, demonstrators stormed the airport and set fire to the aircraft. No one was injured.

What can Christians do now? For now, Kenny is calling on Christians to pray for peace in Haiti and for Agape to get the aircraft back in operation soon. He said the incident would not reduce Agape’s commitment to serving in the area.

“The guys – and we’ve had female pilots in the past, the women – who have gotten into those airplanes feel like that’s what they’re called to do,” he said. “I think we’d probably have a hard time talking them out of doing it.”

Dig Deeper: Listen to my interview with Agape Flights pilot Steve Koch for The WORLD and Everything in It.