TMSG:Community Uses Car Headlights To Guide Child’s Medevac Plane On Runway

Recently, a child from small town Igiugig, Alaska needed to be medevaced to Anchorage. LifeMed sent a flight over from nearby town Kodiak.

Usually, the LifeMed flight would take about 30 minutes. However, the village's airport had some problems with their runway lights and caused the plane to not be able to land. That's when residents stepped in to help. Ida Nelson heard the plane fly overhead and when she looked out the window to see the airport, she noticed the runway lights were off.

Nelson hopped on her four-wheeler and sped over to the runway. Her neighbor jumped in to help too. While Nelson was checking out the runway, her neighbor made 32 calls to wake up the rest of the community. All of the community members drove over to the runway in their cars, trucks, and four-wheelers to use their headlights to light up the runway. Then a local pilot contacted the LifeMed pilot to let them know they would be able to land soon.

All of the community members stayed put as the patient was put onto the plane and they helped as the airplane taxed out, down the runway, and through take off.