A Village of 68 People Lit a Runway With Car Headlights to Save a Child

Igiugig sits on the shore of Lake Iliamna in southwestern Alaska. Population: 68. The nearest major city, Anchorage, is roughly 280 miles away by air. There is no road. No hospital. When something goes wrong, you call for a plane.

On the night of August 28, 2020, something went wrong. A child needed emergency medical evacuation. The village's only link to the outside world was its small gravel airstrip. And the runway lights were dead.

They had been damaged earlier that year - Alaska DOT had been out multiple times to repair lights that kept getting run over during winter maintenance. On any other night, it wouldn't have mattered. Tonight, a child's life depended on a pilot being able to see where to land.

32 Phone Calls

Ida Nelson, the village's tribal clerk, had just stepped out of a steam bath when she heard the LifeMed Alaska plane circling overhead in the darkness. She drove her Honda to the airstrip, confirmed the lights were dead, and asked the runway manager one question: "Well, can I light up the runway?"

A neighbor started dialing. She made 32 phone calls. In a village where you can count every resident by name, 32 calls means you're reaching nearly half the population.

The response was immediate. People poured out of their homes in pajamas - ages 8 to 70. They grabbed car keys, truck keys, ATV keys. Every vehicle in Igiugig that could produce light was driven to the airstrip.

Residents staggered the vehicles along both sides of the runway, facing east, headlights on full beam. The improvised lighting stretched the entire length of the strip. From the air, it appeared as a corridor of light in the middle of absolute darkness.

The Landing

The aircraft was a Beechcraft King Air 200, flying from Kodiak. LifeMed Alaska later shared a photo taken from the cockpit - a completely dark landscape with a single straight line of lights in the distance. The company wrote: "What appears to be a blurry, dark photo is actually a view of what an amazing community can do with a lot of determination."

The pilot landed safely. The village health aide managed the ground operation, telling everyone to hold position during landing and patient loading until the plane had taxied back and taken off. The child was flown to Anchorage for specialist care.

Three days later, Alaska DOT repaired the runway lights. But by then, the village knew they could do it themselves.

Aftermath

The story went international - CNN, BBC, HuffPost, and dozens of outlets picked it up. In May 2021, the American Red Cross of Alaska honoured Ida Nelson with a Real Hero Award in the Safety category.

Nelson didn't see it as heroism. "It's something that we in Igiugig do constantly, like almost every day," she told local radio station KDLG. "If someone is in need you just go."

When asked what drove her that night, she said: "What if that was my baby waiting for that plane?"