Alaska villagers use vehicles to light runway for medevac

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Residents of a remote Alaska village scrambled just before midnight to help save the life of a child, jumping into their vehicles to light up a pitch-black runway as a medical transport plane circled overhead.

People were running around in pajamas to help out, said Ida Nelson, who lives near the runway in the Southwest Alaska village of Igiugig. She had just gotten out of a steam bath herself when she heard the sound of the plane, and noticed that the runway lights weren’t on. She took her ATV to the runway a few hundred yards from her home as a neighbor made 32 phone cal...