Agape Flights approved to resume cargo flights to Haiti amid ongoing violence

VENICE, Fla. - After three weeks of waiting, and watching the unrest unfold in Haiti, a local group has finally gotten the green light to restart their flights that send crucial supplies to those in need.

Venice-based Christian aviation ministry, Agape Flights, has hundreds of missionary partners on the ground in Haiti, and they typically fly them supplies two to three times a week.

But they haven't made a trip since the end of February due to Haitian authorities shutting down airspace across the country.

On Tuesday, though, they got the news they've been praying for; their application to fly two of their cargo planes to Haiti later this week was approved. One of the planes will also be able to bring some missionaries back to Florida.

CEO Allen Speer said that while their planes to Haiti have been grounded, the donations haven't stopped. Their Venice hangar has been backed up with at least 25,000 pounds of supplies. 

"Textbooks for schools, medical supplies, we even have over 1,000 pounds of mattresses for the hospital in Jacmel right now," Allen added. "They need those mattresses. We have five baby warmers that were donated to us that are going to hospitals, either in Jacmel or Jeremy. They need those baby warmers immediately."

Speer's team has also been busy helping with private rescue missions to get Americans out.

"We helped coordinate bringing out some missionaries on that helicopter with Congressman Cory Mills," Speer added. "It was nine of our missionaries who were on board that helicopter, so we worked behind the scenes to get that accomplished, and in that, they're very grateful."

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Speer has been in touch with other missionary partners who remain in Haiti daily.

He said he's incredibly worried about their safety, but a majority of them are choosing to stay put despite witnessing the anarchy firsthand.

"Many of our partners are saying, 'Listen. We're not leaving. We're going to stay because our lives have been built here,'" Speer said. "They have coworkers that are Haitian that cannot leave, and they're not going to leave them by themselves. They're going to stay there."

Agape Flight crews have never been scared of danger in Haiti.

About two years ago, Hatian protestors tore one of their planes apart and set it on fire when a riot broke out at an airport.

Even after that, Speer stressed that missionary partners, some of whom have been going to Haiti for 50-plus years, told him this is the absolute worst they've seen the violence and anarchy get, especially in the capital of Port-au-Prince.