It takes a village: Residents of Alaska town with a population of 70 rally to illuminate a runway with their car headlights so sick girl can be airlifted to hospital 280 miles away in Anchorage

Residents of a remote Alaska village scrambled to help save the life of a child, jumping into their vehicles to light up a pitch-black small airport runway as a medical transport plane struggled to land.

The pilot circled overhead the Southwest Alaska village of Igiugig while neighbors desperately tried to switch on runway lights but it took an entire village to illuminate the area at the mouth of the Kvichak River on Iliamna Lake.

Ida Nelson said she had just gotten out of a steam bath when she heard the sound of what she initially believed was a truck. However she realized it could be an emergency plane because it was after 11pm. 

The King Air flight was sent to the state-owned airport from Kodiak which is 30 minutes away as a little girl had to be rushed to the nearest hospital 280 miles away.

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Residents of a remote Alaska village lit up a runway with light from their cars on Friday night so a child could be airlifted to hospital

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The King Air flight was sent to the state-owned airport from Kodiak which is 30 minutes away as a little girl had to be rushed to the nearest hospital 280 miles away

Nelson noticed that the runway lights weren't on so she took her ATV to the runway a few hundred yards from her home and another neighbor made 32 phone calls requesting help.

'That's pretty much almost every household in this village. Pretty much every cell phone here,' Nelson said.

People were running around in pajamas to help out while Nelson and others on the ground coordinated via phone and radio. 

They staggered cars, trucks and all-terrain vehicles down the length of the runway, using their headlights to show the by LifeMed Alaska pilot where to land Friday night, Alaska's Energy Desk reported.

'Normally if you push the button like 10 or 15 times the lights will just light up,' Nelson said. 'But they didn't and so the medevac plane flew over the village.'

LifeMed Alaska posted a photo on social media showing a straight line of lights in the distance. '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 company wrote.

The child was safely evacuated to Anchorage and has since been released from hospital.

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A resident heard the medical transport plane circling overhead the Southwest Alaska village of Igiugig and rallied her neighbors to help out

'I was anxious and nervous and I was like what if that was my baby [waiting for that] plane,' Nelson told KTOO. 

'And so, once she was able to get the patient on the plane, everybody still stayed in their positions and he was able to taxi out, taxi down the runway and take off.'

Department of Transportation spokesperson Sam Dapcevich said on Sunday that crews have been out to the airport multiple times this year repairing lights that had been vandalized and run over during winter maintenance and were out there as recently as last week to fix a wiring problem.

'They will be returning soon to repair the damaged lights and make sure the system is operational,' he said in a text message, adding: 'We're glad the community was able to safely guide the medevac flight in.'

'Vandalism on Alaska’s small airports does occur every year,' spokeswoman Shannon K. McCarthy said in an email to the New York Times on Sunday. 

'And the state has been working to educate all Alaskans as to the importance of protecting the infrastructure, particularly the role it plays in emergencies, such medical flights. 

'We respond to any reports of damaged runway lights and repair them as quickly as we can.'