Having recovered after testing positive for the novel coronavirus last month, New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond plans to board a World War II-era airplane Friday morning and bless the city from overhead as it continues grappling with the deadly virus.

Aymond, who leads roughly 400,000 Roman Catholics in eight parishes, is set to be joined by Rabbi Lexi Erdheim of Metairie's Gates of Prayer Synagogue, who also plans to confer an aerial blessing during one of two so-called "spirit flights."

The religious leaders will take to the skies in separate flights with different pilots, beginning at 10 a.m. Friday, weather permitting. The blessings will take place from the cockpit of a 1943 Boeing PT-17 Stearman that will be thoroughly disinfected between flights.

The flight comes as social distancing measures triggered by the coronavirus pandemic are forcing religious leaders across the region to find new ways to observe important dates on the spiritual calendars: In this case Good Friday and Passover.

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The local chapter of the Commemorative Air Force, an international World War II flying museum, has arranged the two so-called “spirit flights,” said David Capo, commander of the group's Big Easy Wing.

Each flight will last about 30 minutes from takeoff at Lakefront Airport to landing, and involve the plane zigzagging at about 1,000 feet over the metropolitan New Orleans area on both sides of the Mississippi River, from Kenner to St. Bernard Parish.

In a statement issued Thursday, Aymond called it “a privilege to fly over our city” while asking for prayers for health care workers, community leaders, ill people and those who have died during the pandemic.

“It is … a sign of our faith in Almighty God to ask for his blessing and protection,” Aymond’s statement said.

Acknowledging that the coronavirus is highly contagious, crews clad in masks and gloves will perform deep cleaning scrubs on the plane — with its distinctively bright, yellow wings and open-air cockpit — before and after the flights, Capo said.

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Capo said the plane should be easily visible from the ground.

Aymond, 70, announced March 23 that he had developed a fever and tested positive for the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the virus, COVID-19. He was self-quarantined and isolated at home for the next two weeks as he recovered from the illness, which officials said had led to the deaths of more than 700 people statewide as of Thursday.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans said in a statement last week that Aymond was feeling well enough that he was optimistic about celebrating televised Masses on Easter weekend. Aymond is scheduled to lead a televised Mass scheduled for Thursday.

Those Masses are not open to the public after the archdiocese indefinitely canceled all public gatherings at church beginning March 18 to help slow the spread of the disease.

Aymond, New Orleans’ archbishop since 2009, stayed in touch with the New Orleans area’s Catholics with self-recorded videos that he posted on Facebook.

In a video posted Wednesday night, Aymond said he realized the pandemic was preventing parishioners from physically receiving communion this Easter weekend. But he said parishioners could get spiritual communion by “telling the Lord Jesus that you would like to receive him and ask him to come into the depths of your heart.”