Lots of questions arise from tracking church and ministry aircraft.
On January 23rd, the day before a winter storm reached Texas, televangelist James Robison’s ministry jet flew to the Mexican resort city of Cabo San Lucas. After snow and sleet fell and temperatures finally started rising, the jet returned to Texas on January 27th.
(Screenshot: Flight tracking website ADSB Exchange shows Robison’s Cessna 560XL jet (tail number N562DD) flight to Cabo San Lucas on January 23rd.)
Did James Robison, a family member or other ministry employees travel to Mexico to escape the winter weather?
Why the question matters: James Robison’s jet is owned by Zoe Aviation, a subsidiary of LIFE Outreach International. For tax purposes, personal flights taken on employer-owned aircraft are treated as taxable fringe benefits.
Twice a year the IRS publishes an updated tax rate for personal flights taken on privately owned aircraft. The tax, known as Standard Industry Fare level, includes a terminal charge and rate for miles traveled. The last update was published in the October 6, 2025, issue of the Internal Revenue Bulletin.
LIFE Outreach International claims church status to avoid filing the IRS Form 990. This financial disclosure document sometimes includes information about a ministry’s travel policies, disclosing if a tax is paid on personal flights.
In mid-January, Franklin Graham traveled to Cambodia for an evangelistic crusade, presumably aboard Samaritan’s Purse’s Gulfstream G550 jet (tail number N503GV), which made at least two stops to Hawaii, before and after the crusade date.
(Screenshot: ADSB Exchange shows the January 15th flight from North Wilkesboro, NC to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.)
Did Graham leave family members to vacation in Hawaii during the crusade? After visiting Hawaii, the jet flew to Singapore and then traveled to an unknown airport. The ADSB Exchange’s tracking map fails to show the jet’s destination.
(Screenshot: ADSB Exchange doesn’t show the final Asian destination of the January 21st flight.)
Curiosity question: Are the pilots of the Samaritan’s Purse jet, owned by the shell company Emmanuel Group, turning off the jet’s GPS location transponder to avoid tracking outside American airspace?
While the ministries of most American televangelists with aircraft avoid financial transparency by not filing a Form 990, Samaritan’s Purse files 990s and makes its consolidated financial statements public. These documents disclose one of the most expensive collections of non-profit aircraft.
According to its 2024 consolidated financial statement, Samaritan’s Purse owned $173 million of ministry and missionary aircraft.
(Screenshot: Samaritan’s Purse 2024 Consolidated Financial Statement, Page 18)
One of the more popular vacation destinations for ministry aircraft is Las Vegas. Occasionally preachers travel there to speak in local megachurches.
The Pastor Planes project has so far tracked four different ministry aircraft traveling to Las Vegas in January 2026: Lagoinha Orlando Church’s Cessna 650 jet, Kevin Zadai’s Warrior Notes’ Embraer EMB-505 jet, Kenneth Hagin Jr’s Rhema Bible Church’s Bombardier Challenger jet, and James Robison’s Cessna 560XL.
Warrior Notes holds worship events in Las Vegas and recorded Let’s Worship Together Live At: Las Vegas.
(Screenshot: ADSB Exchange shows Jesse Duplantis Ministries Dassault Falcon 7X jet flight to Las Vegas on August 5, 2024. There was no scheduled ministry event listed on the Duplantis website for that date.)
Televangelist Jesse Duplantis has a fondness for Casino hotels, talking about them during sermons, but denies gambling. Is he being honest?
Sometimes pastors or ministers travel to vacation homes via their ministry aircraft. In 2024, Trinity Foundation reported the cost for personal flights taken by Daystar Television Network president Joni Lamb and her new husband Doug Weiss exceeded $1 million.
Has Word of God Fellowship, the parent organization of Daystar Television Network, sold its Gulfstream jet?
In December 2025, the Daystar jet (tail number N279PH) flew to Teterboro, NJ. The newer flights vary from previous travel patterns. Word of God Fellowship, the parent organization of Daystar has likely sold the jet or leased it for another person or organization’s use.
Trinity Foundation is monitoring the Federal Aviation Administration Aircraft Registry for a change of ownership.
Another televangelist using a ministry jet for personal travel is Mac Hammond, pastor of Living Word Christian Center (LLWC) in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
Throughout the year, LWCC’s Dassault Falcon 50 flies on multiple occasions from Anoka County-Blaine Airport near Minneapolis, Minnesota to Brainerd, Minnesota, where Hammond and his church own properties. It takes only two hours to drive from Hammond’s home in Plymouth, Minnesota to Brainerd and it costs thousands of dollars just to get a private jet in the air.
(Screenshot: ADSB Exchange shows the December 1, 2025, round trip flights of Hammond’s Falcon 50 jet, tail number N7LW.)
Last year, Hammond and his church acquired a new mortgage in Brainerd for $1.7 million.