Crazy Friday - Peru - motorbikers light up a runway for medical evacuation

Posted: 14/03/2014

This crazy Friday sees RPS with a consultant in Tunisia so we will be updating you on the security situation there in the next week. But for this Crazy Friday, we go to Peru and find that some 300 motorcycle taxi drivers used the lights of their vehicles to light up the Contamana local aerodrome's runway. This made it possible for a light aircraft flying three sick patients to take off. How cool is that?

Last Tuesday, April 2, 2013, at 6 pm., at the aerodrome of Contamana, a light aircraft was about to take off with three patients that had to be transferred to a hospital in the city of Pucallpa, in the Loretean province of Ucayali.

Hours earlier, a 31-year-old female patient arrived to a medical center in Contamana to deliver her baby. Some complications arose two hours after delivery and the mother and her newborn baby had to be transported to a better equipped hospital. Almost at the same time, a 17-year-old male patient arrived at a health center with symptoms of leptospirosis. The three patients required urgent medical attention, so doctors ordered their immediate transfer to Pucallpa.

By that time, all operations at the Contamana aerodrome and at the Pucallpa airport were closed for the day. The doctors and personnel from the Contama aerodrome, however, managed to arrange the flight and got the authorization to land in the Pucallpa airport.

But things were not completely solved yet, as the Contamana aerodrome's runway didn't have any lighting.

A local radio station made an appeal and asked motorcycle and motorcycle taxi drivers to go to the aerodrome to light up the 800-metre long landing strip. Just a few minutes later, 300 motorcycles and motorcycle taxis arrived at the aerodrome and managed to perfectly light up the whole strip.

The aircraft took off to applause from the bystanders.

 

For the full story and subsequent twitter comments: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/04/05/peru-motorcycle-taxis-light-up-runway-to-transport-sick-patients/

Photo: courtesy of article.wn.com, video courtesy of youtube.com Extra World News http://youtu.be/1V4PQqk3QKQ

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