Samaritan Aviation

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Samaritan Aviation

Showing God's love through aviation services in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea. Visit our website www.samaritanaviation.org

Samaritan Aviation exists to demonstrate God’s love by providing aviation and medical services in remote areas. Operating some of the only floatplanes in Papua New Guinea, we serve those living in the East Sepik province through emergency life flights, medicine delivery, disaster relief and community health programs.

09/18/2026

When a medical crisis happens in a remote village, help needs to be ready.

Every gift to Samaritan Aviation helps make it possible to respond with lifesaving medical aid when it matters most — from keeping our aircraft ready to fly to supplying the medical supplies and equipment our team needs.

Your generosity helps ensure that when the call comes, we can go.

Because in a crisis, minutes matter.

Join the mission at samaritanaviation.org.

09/17/2026

There is a particular kind of joy that only children produce.

It is loud and unselfconscious and completely contagious. It doesn't belong in a hospital ward — and yet, that's exactly where it showed up.

Essau Yangas is four years old. He had arrived at Boram Hospital from Ambunti in rough shape. Thalassemia — a blood disorder that limits the body's ability to produce healthy red blood cells — had left him severely anemic and weak. He was crying. He couldn't stand or walk. Pilot Luke Hamer quickly flown him from Ambunti to Wewak because his body had simply run out of what it needed to keep going.

The doctors gave him a blood transfusion.

And then Essau came back to himself.

The crying stopped. He stood. He walked. His family watched and thanked God out loud for what they were seeing, because there is no other response to watching your child return to his own eyes.

But the best part was still coming.

Essau discovered the King of Glory series, Scripture brought to life in Tok Pisin, the trade language of Papua New Guinea, vivid and engaging in a way that stops children mid-movement and holds them.

He loved it immediately. And he wasn't the only one. The other children in the pediatric ward gathered around with him, his mother close by, a small unlikely congregation of little ones watching the story of God unfold together.

It was not what anyone would picture when they think of a hospital ward. It was better.

Essau was discharged healthy, having made friends he hadn't expected and encountered a story that will stay with him far longer than the memory of being sick.

Thank you for giving him both.

09/15/2026

Semanup Steven didn't arrive at Boram Hospital with a single problem.

She arrived with several.

Abdominal pain. An enlarged spleen. High blood pressure. Headaches that pressed in from all sides. Dizziness. And then, most alarmingly, her vision began to go dark.

At 57, her body was carrying a heavy load. Pilot Matt Condon flew her from Lihkan to Wewak, and the medical team received her and began working through a complicated picture of interconnected symptoms — the kind that don't resolve with a single treatment but require patience, monitoring, and time.

The early days were difficult.

Semanup could talk, which was something. But she was weak, tired in a way that went bone-deep, and needed support just to walk a few steps. Mostly she rested. Her body was conserving every ounce of energy it had for the uphill battle before her.

It was in those quiet, unglamorous days that the hospital ministry team showed up for her. They didn't wait for her to get better before bringing the Word of God to her bedside. They came in the middle of it, praying over a woman whose vision was dimming and whose strength had not yet returned, reminding her that she was held by a God who does not grow weak and does not lose sight of His people.

Then, quietly, things began to shift.

The pain that had brought her in started to ease. The dizziness settled. She began walking on her own. Then eating. Each small gain built on the last, until the woman who had arrived struggling to stand was moving through the ward under her own strength.

She was discharged well.

Walking. Eating. Heading home to her family and friends, restored.

Sometimes recovery isn't dramatic. It's just faithful — one quiet step at a time.

Thank you for making sure Semanup had the care she needed to take those steps.

09/14/2026

In the midst of someone's worst moment, a little bit of dignity can go a long way.

When our pilots touch down after picking up a critical patient from a remote village in Papua New Guinea, the relationship doesn't end with a free flight to the hospital. Often, patients arrive with nothing but the clothes they are wearing.

So before they get to the hospital, our team prepares a care pack — an audio Bible, fresh water, soap, a blanket, a bowl and spoon. Practical essentials that say someone thought of them before they even arrived.

Because for us, the mission doesn't end when the plane lands.

09/11/2026

Two babies. One flight. Every second mattered.

When the call came in, our team didn't hesitate. That's what we're here for: to be ready when a family has nowhere else to turn and no time to spare.

Flights like this one don't happen on their own. They happen because people choose to be part of something bigger than themselves. Your generosity keeps our planes prepared, our team equipped, and our response ready — so that when the most vulnerable need us most, we can say yes.

If you'd like to help make flights like this possible, visit samaritanaviation.org to give.

09/10/2026

Dron Yalu is fourteen years old.

That's the fact that sits heaviest over everything else in this story. Fourteen. Still a boy, in every sense of the word — and yet, a wire launched from a wire catapult had found its way into his back, completely changing the trajectory of his life.

Wire catapults are common weapons in Papua New Guinea. And in one moment, without warning, Dron's life was in danger.

By the time the call reached Pilot Anton Yudzitski, Dron was in serious trouble. The wire had caused a hemothorax — blood pooling where it shouldn't be — and pneumonia had already begun to set in alongside the trauma. Timbunke is not close to the surgical help he needed, and a canoe on the winding Sepik River doesn't move fast enough for emergencies like this one.

Anton received the call and quickly flew him to Wewak.

Doctors removed the wire and turned their attention to the damage it had left behind. Dron rested. He was in pain — the kind that doesn't move quickly, that just has to be waited out day by day while the body does its slow work of healing. His wound needed dressing and monitoring. There was nothing to do but be patient and let the treatment take hold.

During those long, painful days, the hospital ministry team came and sat with him.

For a fourteen-year-old boy, far from home and hurting, that kind of presence carries weight. They prayed over Dron and opened and explored the Word of God with him — Scripture spoken into a hard moment for a young man who needed to hear that he was seen and that he was not alone.

He healed.

It took time, but the wound closed, the infection cleared, and Dron was discharged and sent home to Timbunke.

A boy with his whole life ahead of him — because a pilot flew, doctors worked, and because faithful people headed God's call.

Thank you for making all of it possible.

09/09/2026

Remote rivers. Emergency calls. Floatplanes launching when minutes matter.

The Compassion Crew is a community of monthly supporters who give $19 a month to help fuel this mission—supporting the flights, maintenance, supplies, and team behind each lifesaving response.

Month after month, our team is ready to go where roads don’t reach and help is often hours or even days away.

If you've ever wanted to be part of something that genuinely changes lives in one of the most remote places on earth — this is your seat.

Join the Compassion Crew at compassioncrew.org.

09/08/2026

There are things we do every day without thinking.

Sitting up in the morning. Reaching for something to eat. Making eye contact with someone we love. Speaking a word out loud.

Irene John had lost all of it.

By the time she arrived at Boram Hospital from Amboin, cerebral malaria had taken everything. She couldn't sit. She couldn't eat. She couldn't speak. Her eyes, when they were open, focused on nothing. She could only lie still while the disease did what it wanted with her body.

She was also six months pregnant — though no one knew that yet.

Pilot Anton Yudzitski flew Irene to Wewak, a journey that by canoe would have measured in hours Irene simply did not have. The medical team received her and began treatment immediately, working to push back an illness that had already taken so much.

And slowly, Irene began to return.

First she could sit. Then eat. Then speak. Her eyes, which had stared at nothing, began to focus again on the faces around her. Each small recovery was its own quiet miracle — the kind that only means something when you've watched someone lose it entirely.

It was during this time that the discovery was made. Irene was six months along, carrying her fifth child. Anemia had compounded everything her body was already fighting through, and she needed treatment for that too before anyone could talk about sending her home.

Somewhere in the middle of all of it, the ministry team showed up. They didn't come with medical answers. They came with presence, with prayer, and with the King of Glory series — Scripture told in Irene's own language, meeting her in a season when she deeply needed it. A woman who days earlier couldn't speak was now hearing about the God who spoke life into existence.

She was discharged healthy, her baby still growing, her strength restored.

Four children waiting at home. A fifth on the way. And a beautifully full life that, for a moment, had slipped toward the edge and was pulled back.

Your support made this flight possible. God did the rest.

09/07/2026

What does it actually take to keep a floatplane in the air in Papua New Guinea?

More than you might think.

Salt air. Tropical humidity. Rough water landings. Long flight hours in some of the most demanding conditions on earth. Our aircraft operate in an environment that requires constant care and attention, and our team works hard to make sure every one is ready when the call comes in.

Because when a village or aid post calls in an emergency, “the plane isn’t ready” isn’t an option.

We are grateful for our hardworking and knowledgeable crew, whose skill and dedication keep our aircraft prepared for the next call.

09/04/2026

Papua New Guinea is home to more distinct languages than almost anywhere else on earth. But across the diversity of tribes and tongues, one language connects them — Tok Pisin, the trade language spoken by most communities throughout the country.

That's why we give audio Bibles in Tok Pisin. For many of the patients we fly, it's the language they grew up hearing in markets, in villages, in everyday life — and now it's the language they get to hear the Word of God in. Spoken aloud, accessible to anyone regardless of literacy, and given freely to every patient.

We give audio Bibles because we believe the work we do is about more than getting people to the hospital. It's about what happens to their hearts while they're there, and what they carry home with them when they leave.

Address

4710 E Falcon Drive, STE 217
Mesa, AZ
85215

Telephone

+14805811940

Website

http://samaritanaviation.org/

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