40 Years of Flying Into Danger to Save Lives

Epoch Times

25-04-2025

There's no such thing as a typical day at the office for pilot Marcus Grey.
The Australian Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) airman has spent the past four decades flying to some of the most remote areas in Australia and the Pacific to save lives.
Grey spoke exclusively to The Epoch Times during a stopover in the regional Queensland city of Bundaberg with the charity's gleaming new 10-seater Cessna 208—a plane that will allow even more assistance to reach areas like Papua New Guinea (PNG), where many locals rely on such services for medical help.
Though only about four kilometres separate PNG and Australia, life on the small island nation is vastly different.
Beautiful yet unforgiving, the rugged terrain of PNG—where tribes live scattered across rugged countryside and mountainous expanses—makes building roads or infrastructure nearly impossible.
As a result, many villagers must trek for hours or even days to access medical help, sometimes carrying children, the elderly, or expectant mothers through harsh terrain.
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Tribal violence is also a challenge in PNG, with land disputes and attacks by so-called 'rascal' gangs becoming increasingly common.
This violence is made worse by the proliferation of modern weaponry and the breakdown of traditional structures that once protected respected community figures such as elders.
In these conditions, access to aircraft is quite literally lifesaving.
The new MAF Cessna took a brief tour of parts of Australia before taking off to save lives in PNG.
Crystal-Rose Jones / Epoch Times
But as Grey explains, piloting in PNG presents its own unique challenges, especially due to a lack of sophisticated runways, landing areas, and reliable weather analysis.
He recalled one of his most challenging flights, and the way a community came together to save a little girl's life one night.
'I had to do a night landing in Goroka in the middle of Papua New Guinea,' Grey said.
'The airstrip isn't rated for night flying, and a little girl got bitten by a death adder. I went to pick her up, but she couldn't be moved until later in the afternoon.'
To complicate matters further, only one location in the entire country had the antivenin—and it was at Goroka Airport.
While some airports in the region had landing lights for night flying, none had the medicine the girl needed.
The pilot explained his dilemma to staff on the ground, and soon MAF workers had gathered other companies to park along the runway.
'All the people on Goroka Airport got their cars and lined the airstrip with their headlights—it's only ever been done once before,' Grey said.
'They all chipped in to help, which was really nice. It was a community effort. The doctor was at the airport to meet the little girl, gave her the antivenin in the aeroplane, and I took her home the next week. She recovered so quickly.'
Grey said the experience was 'one of the hairy ones,' and working in PNG is not for the faint of heart.
He began flying to the remote Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory, an area blessed with flat land and relatively stable weather.
'I got enough hours to go to PNG, [which] is just a non-stop learning curve—learning new airstrips, new types of weather patterns,' Grey said.
Courtesy of MAF
From bogged-down planes to unpredictable weather, Grey says pilots who brave the Pacific island must always be ready to adapt and improve.
While he's flown 'hundreds, if not thousands' of medical missions, he also helps deliver goods like produce to markets, to support local tribes economically.
Since 2007, he has also flown missions in East Timor, following a request from the nation's health department.
Much like PNG, East Timor's unforgiving terrain and lack of infrastructure have made medical access difficult since the departure of Indonesian forces.
'They had very old ambulances and the roads were very bad after the Indonesians left,' Grey said.
'We were replacing a six, seven-hour journey in a rickety old ambulance with a 20-30-minute flight,' he said.
'I love how we can help people in all different ways using the aircraft. We want them to know God loves them by practical means.'
Grey says he loves flying, but loves even more what it allows him to do for people in need.
He has also spent the past 20 years instructing at a flying school in Mareeba, North Queensland. Many of his students have gone on to work for MAF, helping provide vital flight services.
The MAF charity was started by Jim Truxton in the U.S. in 1945. Just a year later, female pilot Elizabeth Everts Green made history as the first woman to cross the Andes as part of the service.
Since 1981, the service has operated countless flights globally—including across PNG, remote regions in Australia, and the Pacific.