An annual miracle

Special Olympics Airlift, by the numbers

More than 10,000 athletes and coaches transported since 1987

130 Cessna, Beechcraft, and Hawker aircraft participated in 2026, from 26 locations

Landings every three to four minutes at St. Paul Downtown Airport (STP)

Roundtrip distance traveled close to 300,000 nautical miles

Textron Aviation organizes this annual miracle with closely choreographed arrival and departure schemes that, in 2026, brought 130 airplanes carrying more than 800 Special Olympics athletes to and from Minnesota’s St. Paul Downtown Airport (STP) at three-minute intervals.

Working closely with FAA and local officials, each airplane gets a “Dove” call sign and a detailed series of instructions. Pilots take pride in fulfilling their volunteer roles with cheerful precision—but sometimes even the best-laid plans go awry.

My own miscues began on June 19, arrival day, when I got a call around 1 p.m. asking why I wasn’t at Dulles International Airport (IAD) where my three passengers were waiting at Signature Aviation. My printed manifest indicated I would fly the return trip one week later—so the call was a total surprise.

I dropped everything and drove to Hagerstown Regional Airport where Ben Rider of the Rider Jet Center made his Cessna Citation M2 available for this high-priority mission. I filed a flight plan for the short 50-mile hop to IAD and took off alone.

Dulles was in the midst of its Friday afternoon rush but fit me in for a landing on Runway 1 Right for a short taxi to Signature. There, I met my passengers, Cherrye Jeter, a coach, and two teenage boys, Aarieon Sampson, a soccer player, and Colby Middleton, a bowler.

I felt terrible about being so late, but the coach and athletes were in excellent spirits. This would be Sampson’s first flight of any kind, and it was Jeter’s first time in a general aviation aircraft.

The four of us made the long taxi to Runway 30 for departure and Jeter, 47, Facetimed the event for her husband, mother, and kids at home.

“Can you believe it?” she asked. “I’m in the co-pilot’s seat, and we’re right behind a Boeing! I can’t believe this.”

Once airborne, I checked in with Washington Center using my airlift call sign—Dove 87—and the controller replied with something I’d never expected to hear in this busy East Coast airspace (and in all likelihood will never hear again).

“You’re cleared direct destination,” the controller said. “Climb to flight level four zero zero.” A 100-knot headwind at 36,000 feet relented to 70 knots at 40,000 feet, and the air was mercifully smooth for the three-hour flight. As we prepared to descend into the Minneapolis area, however, an isolated but intense thunderstorm was pummeling STP with heavy rain and lightning.

Slowing down and following some circuitous routing gave the storm time to move off as we began an approach to Runway 14 in visual conditions. Then a shifting wind dictated that we circle to Runway 32 for landing.

The airport was soaked and appeared vacant as we taxied to the arrival ramp Textron had set up with red carpets. Then the lightning curfew ended, the hangar doors opened, and a swarm of Textron staff welcomed my passengers with cheers, applause, and smiles. It was a greeting none of us aboard Dove 87 will ever forget.

Shannon Peterson, Textron sales manager for the Northeast and coordinator of this year’s airlift, teased me about missing my three-minute time slot.

“If you’re going to miss your window,” she said, “you may as well miss it by hours instead of minutes or seconds.”

Peterson said several airplanes had been delayed, mostly by powerful thunderstorms in Texas. “We’re just glad everyone’s here and ready to take part in the Special Olympics,” she said. “We look forward to this week because it means so much to so many people. We plan for it all year long and thoroughly enjoy making it happen.”

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