Damaged mitochondria are cleared from neurons by mitophagy. At the soma, this process is mediated by lysosomes and requires two Parkinson's disease-related proteins, parkin and PINK1. However, it remains controversial whether the same mechanisms operate in distal axons where lysosomes are sparse. The authors showed that damage to mitochondria in the distal axons of hippocampal neurons caused recruitment of PINK1 and parkin, which act locally to mediate mitophagy. Knockout of either protein prevented mitophagy in damaged hippocampal axons. These findings implicate the PINK1–parkin pathway in the response of distal axons to mitochondrial damage.