Airlifts carry athletes to and from Lincoln

The first 2010 Special Olympic USA National Games athletes arrived in Lincoln, Neb. from Columbus, Ohio as part of the Cessna Airlift. The airlift brought 800 Special Olympics athletes and coaches to Lincoln on private aircraft to compete in the USA National Games.
Actor Harrison Ford, the honorary chairman of the Cessna Airlift for the 2010 Special Olympics USA National Games, and hundreds of other Cessna jet owners spent the last two Saturdays ferrying 800 athletes and coaches to and from Lincoln for the Special Olympics USA National Games. That means that for 10 hours on each Saturday, a Cessna aircraft was taking off or landing every two minutes or less at the Lincoln airport.
"For these world-class athletes, the airlift is their only means of transportation and the only way for them to have the opportunity to compete as world-class athletes," Charles Cooper, president and CEO of the 2010 Special Olympics games, said in a statement.
This is the sixth time Cessna has sponsored the airlift. Planning for the event takes a year to put in place. Flight controllers gave the flights a special call sign of "Dove" and gave them priority attention, the company said. The jets that flew athletes and coaches to Lincoln returned them home on July 24th.
-University of
Nebraska-Lincoln