The news these days is often depressing at worst and frustrating at best. It’s easy to get caught up in the spin cycle and let it get us down. Never fear… The News Blender has you covered. Once a week, we feature Something Good and, in return, all you have to do is tell us something good that has happened to you this week, something you are thankful for, a joke, a cute animal story, an inspiring tale of heroics, a Random Act of Kindness… SOMETHING good.
This week’s Something Good is a literal example of the saying “it takes a village”.
A child was recently in need of medical care in the rural village of Igiugig, Alaska, population 70. A Medevac plane attempted to land at 11:30 pm but found the runway lights out.
Tribal clerk, Ida Nelson, heard the plane and knew something was wrong – a plane at that time of night in the little village 280 miles from the nearest city was unusual. She hurried to the runway on her ATV and found a local pilot attempting to turn on the lights. Normally the runway lights on the state owned landing strip can be turned on by the landing aircraft but they weren’t responding to even the manual attempt on the ground.
Nelson offered to light up one end of the runway with her ATV lights and, when she was told they needed many more vehicles, she called a neighbor who started making phone calls to other residents while the local pilot communicated with the LifeMed Alaska pilot about their plan.
Ida told CNN, “I was feeling nervous, anxious because this is late at night and this is someone’s child. The only thing I could think of was how quickly I could get other people here to help because what if that was my baby’s plane?”
Within 20 minutes, 20 vehicles were taking position at each dark light on the runway and in between as well lighting up the landing strip. The plane was finally able to safely land. As the residents held their positions, the patient was loaded up and the LifeMed Alaska team was able to take off safely. The child was transported to Anchorage in stable condition.
LifeMed Alaska CEO Russ Edwards told CNN that flights in rural Alaska can get tricky sometimes and, while ice and snow have kept their planes from landing, he couldn’t recall a time when lack of runway lights prevented a landing.
“Fortunately, the crew and the folks on ground were able to come up with a safe and creative solution to get on the ground,” Edwards said. “Without all that cooperation from everybody, it wouldn’t have happened.”
Ida Nelson said, “It’s an ordinary thing to happen here in such a small community. And what I’m finding out is that it’s extraordinary to other people — it’s kind of a normal deal.”
Looking out for each other in times of need is definitely Something Good. Now it’s your turn… Tell me something good!
