The American crashed just months after she started flying in Indonesia.
A 40-year-old American missionary pilot delivering COVID-19 supplies to remote villages died in a plane crash in Indonesia on Tuesday.
Joyce Lin, a pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), was transporting rapid test kits and school supplies to a village in Papua, the easternmost province in the far-flung island chain. She took off from the city of Sentani at 6:27 a.m. and made a distress call two minutes later, MAF spokesman Brad Hoagland said. A search-and-rescue team found her Kodiak 100 airplane crashed into nearby Lake Sentani and recovered her body from about 40 feet under the water, according to local police.
Lin was an experienced pilot and a certified flight instructor. She completed her first solo flight for MAF in March. Approved to fly to 20 villages (of about 150 served by MAF), she lead the drive to procure soap for missionaries and aid workers dealing with the threat of coronavirus, and transported medicine, COVID-19 tests, and personal protective equipment across the area.
“We feel a great sense of loss but a great sense of comfort as well, because Joyce was doing what she loved to do and she was faithful to the calling that God had placed on her life,” David Holsten, president of MFA, told Christianity Today. “She gave her life serving the Lord in a way that was impacting others.”
MAF has not had a fatal accident in 23 years, Holsten said. Civil aviation authorities are investigating the cause of the crash. There were no other passengers on board because of coronavirus flight restrictions, according to Hoagland. Travel remains restricted in Indonesia, but MAF has permission to fly cargo and people facing medical emergencies.
A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...
from Christianity Today Magazine https://ift.tt/2y1d8QC
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