Once again, the iPhone’s emergency SOS function via satellite captured heroic attention. Two women have been rescued in British Columbia using their iPhone 14 devices, marking perhaps the first such rescue in the region, The Times Colonist reports.
The women were stranded on their way to Alberta and had to take an alternate route via the Holmes Forest Service Road after a highway was closed. The road was partially plowed, but they got to the end of the cleared area.
“There is no cell service there but one of them had the new Apple phone that has SOS in it and turned on SOS and to my knowledge this is the first time SOS has been used in Colombia -British”, said Dwight Yochim, senior director of BC Search and Rescue in a statement.
According to Yochim, the women were stranded about 20km up the road in the snow without knowing their location or having cell service. With the help of the satellite-based Emergency SOS feature, the team was able to quickly strategize and determine that the women might have left. If not for one of the women sending a signal via her iPhone 14, it would have taken over a week to find the women.
You can see the location of the rescue operation on the map above. According to the rescue team, it was “a wall of snow”, and the two women tried to cross it. Fortunately, the rescue team found them, pulled out their vehicle and potentially saved their lives.
The Satellite Emergency SOS feature is currently available in Canada and the United States, and you can find everything you need to know about it at see our article on the subject. In the meantime, be careful on your winter travels and stay safe.
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