300 taxis combine headlights to illuminate airstrip for emergency flight

A fleet of hundreds of taxis came to the rescue at an airstrip in Peru by forming a chain so that their headlights lit a local airstrip for a rescue plane’s emergency takeoff.

The small, remote airstrip is not designed for nighttime flights.

Three sick people were flown to a hospital after the motorcycle taxis gathered on the small airstrip in Contamana, Peru, according to Spanish-language site El Comercio.

The vehicles raced there in just 30 minutes after a radio call was made asking for assistance.

As the Peruvian Times notes, the only other access route from Contamana to the nearest hospital is an 18-hour boat ride.

"We have always been people with a heart," said Adolfo Lobo, who issued the distress call from a local radio station.

Unfortunately, one of the plane’s passengers, Samuel Tamani, later died of complications from a tropical disease, leptospirosis. However, the other two individuals, a mother and her newborn baby, were expected to fully recover.

You can watch the taxis lining up on the airstrip: