Community Comes Together To Light Up Nighttime Medevac Takeoff

The video, however, is WAY more complicated than many folks might think.

Here's the common takeaway: When an emergency medevac flight had to takeoff from a dark runway in Honduras, the locals pulled together and helped light the runway so the pilot could see to take off and bring the patient somewhere they could receive life-saving care. Only thing, it's not really like that at all.

By the time the video begins, the Cessna 206 is either freshly catapulted carrier-style or it's been rolling for a while, because it is already speeding down the runway. That airstrip, reportedly in Utila, Honduras, is unlighted, so the local residents went to the strip to use vehicles, flashlights and phones to create improvised runway edge lighting.

The video is undated, but it might have been around for a couple of years, at least according to one poster. The folks lining the runway are dressed in a way that no one in the northern climes can pull off these days (early January), but in Honduras, the weather rules are very different, and January, while the coldest month of the year, has an average daytime temp of 65 degrees. Clearly not typical for International Falls!

To the question of the framing of the story! that is, locals gather to help out by providing runway illumination. It doesn't hold air. While we have no doubt that might have been their intention, or at least some of the folks there, the truth is, the Moon, which is in frame, looks very bright, and the 206 has a working landing light. All you really need in that situation is to know the runway is clear, that the length available is sufficient and where the centerline is. All those things the 206 pilot could easily have done with no help.

In fact, we'd argue that the presence of so many people and vehicles made the takeoff significantly riskier! The pilot, likely an experienced bush flyer, surely has done night takeoffs from similar, unlighted runways, and with the nearly full moon, it would have been pretty easy to see that there were no obstructions. At worst, the pilot could have taxied the full length to check that that was so.

Regardless, the video made a lot of viewers happy to know that small planes can be used to do good and that it's really cool when the community comes together to support such flying. Regardless of how justified that view is in light of the truth behind this video, that's a good conclusion for our non-pilot friends to have.

---

The world of aerial rescue is older and richer than you'd imagine! Read up on it here.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Get the latest Plane & Pilot Magazine stories delivered directly to your inbox

Subscribe to our newsletter