Every day, MAF planes are flying to bring help, hope, and healing to the ends of the earth. Maintaining those aircraft is crucial to our mission of seeing isolated people changed by the love of Christ!
But even with attentive and regular maintenance, unexpected issues can come up, often in very remote places.
In the eastern side of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there’s an airstrip deep in the Ituri rainforest, which could easily be mistaken for just a wide section of a road.
The airstrip is near the Amadi mission station, which MAF has served for many years. It is home to a church and primary school, where evangelism and education have been a focus of ministry in this isolated forest village.
Recently, pilot David Petersen shared about a maintenance problem that came up on a flight to this area:
“The other day we flew the 206 out to pick up two missionaries who needed to come back to Bunia to catch the shuttle flight to Uganda the next day, to make connecting flights to their home country of India.
After dropping off an SIL translator and a Samaritan’s Purse worker in another village, we flew to Amadi to pick up the missionaries. Before leaving we needed to make two more landings for one of our newer pilots to be checked out.
We did the first takeoff and then came around to land. Just after landing, the right tire shredded on something on the airstrip. We were now stuck more than 250 miles out in the forest.”
After riding to the mission station on motorcycles, David and the other pilot were able to contact the MAF base in Bunia. The team there immediately began preparing a Caravan to bring some tools, a jack, and a spare tire.
While the plane was enroute from Bunia, six local people lifted the wing on the side of the flat tire and helped move the aircraft toward the end of the runway to make room for the Caravan to land.
“Ninety minutes later, the Caravan showed up and we knew the missionaries would make their flight connection,” said David.
The Caravan was on its way in less than 10 minutes, carrying David’s original passengers back to Bunia. But the tire change was going to require some ingenuity.
“We tried to jack the plane, but the jack pad was not right,” David explained. “We found a piece of a log from the forest and, after a local guy cut a slot with a machete, we were able to strap the log to the gear tight enough so the jack would not slip.”
Finally, the tire was changed out and they were ready to go 20 minutes later. Since they wouldn’t make it back to base before sunset, David decided to fly to a city about halfway out of the forest.
“That night we had dinner with an SIL Bible translation and consultant family and heard the exciting news of the many translations going on in that area,” David said.
Be it fixing a shredded tire on a remote airstrip, an engine change-out at MAF headquarters, or avionics upgrades, careful maintenance is so important!
-Natalie Holsten, Writer
Mission Aviation Fellowship is a faithful partner of The Bolick Foundation.