The Alaska Air National Guard traveled almost 660 miles (1,062 km) to rescue a pregnant woman on a small island 2 miles (3 km) from Russia, mirroring the challenges patients face in the largest U.S. state with no roads in its most remote areas. and hospitals can be hundreds of miles away.

Since there is no runway, the rescuers flew in a twin-engine helicopter from the Anchorage area to an island in the Bering Strait. A search and rescue aircraft escorted him through the mountain passes and refueled him several times during the 5-hour flight.

This sort of rescue operation is common in the state, which is nearly 2.5 times the size of Texas and has more coastline than the bottom 48 states combined.

“The rescue call came in on Monday morning,” Air Guard duty officer Sarah Warren said.

Authorities have been notified of a pregnant woman in severe pain in Diomede, a village of 80 people on the western side of Little Diomede Island, a traditional Ingalikmiut Inuit village whose residents hunt seals, polar bears and blue crabs for a living.

At this time of the year, the island is separated from Russia’s Big Diomede by 3 kilometers (2 miles) of frozen Bering Sea ice. The International Date Line runs between the two islands.

The rescue was hampered not only by lingering fog from sea ice, but also by a power outage. Residents called the nearest hospital every hour with updates on the woman’s condition, then turned off their phones to save electricity. The doctor will then relay the latest information to those at Joint Base Anchorage.

The woman was eventually taken to the hospital without incident, and the Alaska Air National Guard recorded the 14th rescue that year.

Source: Associated Press.