Joint Church Aid

  1968 to 1969

  United States of America

TYPE: Humanitarian organization

IATA/ICAO CODES: Nil

HEADQUARTERS: Sao Tome (operational base)

FORMER NAME: Nil

OTHER NAME: Jesus Christ Airline (nickname)

Drawing credit: Axel V. Duch / www.theairlifttobiafra.com

In 1967, the Christian Biafra region of Nigeria declared its independence and civil war broke out. Soon, a major famine broke out in Biafra, and pictures of starved children shocked the entire world. Humanitarian aid was funeled through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which put stringent conditions on how the aid should be delivered. The World Council of Churches had taken a neutral stance on the issue, and decided to work through the ICRC as well, which frustrated several Protestant church organizations. The ICRC’s effort, which was supported by most governments, was done with the permission of Nigeria’s Federal Military Government and launched from Santa Isabel, Spanish Guinea - although relations between the Nigerian government and the Red Cross were often tense and difficult.

As ICRC failed to deliver enough supplies and the humanitarian situation became desperate, a coalition of Northern European churches called Nordchurch Aid started coordinating their own airlifts of food, medicine and supplies to Biafra. After several months of successful operations, and following an expansion of airfield capacity in Biafra in October 1968, Christian organizations collectively decided that it was time to purchase larger aircraft in order to increase the shipments of aid to Biafra. This meant the formation of a coordinated group: Joint Chruch Aid was born, putting together the efforts of Nordchruch Aid, Caritas International, and churches from 33 countries.

Joint Church Aid's airlift was launched from the island of Sao Tome and supplied Biafra via Uli, an airstrip improvised on a 400-meter stretch of highway - the only landing field available in the region after Port Harcourt had fallen to the Nigerian Government. Joint Church Aid's aircraft operated only under the cover of darkness, under constant threat from enemy ground fire. Their fleet was an heterogenous batch of old propliners: mainly Lockheed Constellations, Boeing Stratofreighters, Douglas DC3s, DC4s & DC6s. Over the next two years, pilots working for Joint Church Aid flew a total of 5,314 missions into Biafra, delivering a total of 60,000 tons of aid supplies. During the same time period, 25 Joint Chruch Aid pilots were killed.

August 1968 to unknown date

Joint Church Aid operated 2 Commandos leased from Fred Olsen Air Transport. These were later replaced by Fred Olsen's Douglas DC6.

• Riddle C-46R Commando: LN-FOP, LN-FOR