About Us
Mercy Air is an Christian-NGO registered as Section 21 organisation in South Africa. Since 1991, Mercy Air has been providing aviation services to humanitarian and mission organisations throughout southern Africa. We are based in White River, South Africa. Our international offices include South Africa, United States, Switzerland, and Germany.
Our History
In 1986 Ron & Barbara Wayner were attending a mission school seminar in Texas USA, and heard Don Price (YWAM, SA) talking about his vision of aircraft being used to transport missionaries into war-torn Mozambique, and other surrounding countries.
Inspired by what they heard and following God’s leading, they raised the funds to purchase and rebuild (over 9 months) an old Cessna 180. They left Holland, Michigan, USA on September 5th 1991 and arrived safely in South Africa a number of days later, after flying for 80 hours to ferry the plane across the Atlantic Ocean. YWAM Mission Air later became known as Mercy Air.
Soon the Cessna 180 was replaced by a Cessna 210 and a Beech 18, here shown in its new Mercy Air paint scheme. Ron and John Herbert can be seen doing their pre-flight walk around.
Both aircraft were operated by Mercy Air for about 18 years.
In September 2004, Matthias and Karin Reuter joined the Mercy Air family with N-MA which was soon in action bridging the gap between remote airfields and inaccessible villages.