Cool video lets you join a C-130 plane on a Christmas Drop mission to airdrop aid to remote islands in Micronesia

The following video was recorded on Dec. 14, from a C-130 with the  36th Airlift Squadron from Yokota Air Base, Japan, as the cargo plane (departed from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam) delivered humanitarian aid boxes to six locations in the Federated States of Micronesia as part of Operation Christmas Drop 2012.

Noteworthy, wheareas most of the boxes land on sort-of WWII airport’s runways, some are air dropped into the water making it a bit difficult to pick up.

Each year Operation Christamas Drop provides aid to more than 30,000 islanders in Chuuk, Palau, Yap, Marshall Islands and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

This year is the 61st anniversary of OCD, making it the longest running humanitarian mission in the world. Started on Dec. 10, in total, there are eight planned days of air drops, with 54 islands scheduled to receive humanitarian aid.

Image credit: U.S. Air Force

Related articles

• Watch a Hurricane Hunter’s WC-130J plane fly into Sandy superstorm
• Was a U.S. C-130 mistakenly shot down in Chad in 1988?
• “Doomsday” planes will keep U.S. decision makers alive in case of Mayan Apocalypse on December 21st
• Iraqi Air Force C-130J cargo planes on delivery

About David Cenciotti

WebsiteFacebookTwitterLinkedIn instagram

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.