Two girls stranded in British Columbia in Canada had been reportedly stored by way of iPhone 14’s Emergency SOS by the use of satellite tv for pc function, which was once introduced in November 2022. According to a Times Colonist document, the ladies had been on their as far back as Alberta when an twist of fate closed the primary freeway .
To test for another manner, they used Google Maps, which directed them to take the Holmes Forest Service Road. However, this street had handiest been “partially plowed” after serious snowstorms and the ladies reached a lifeless finish within the desert of McBride situated within the Robson Valley area after using for just about 20 km.
Stranded and not using a mobile carrier, one of the crucial girls, who had an iPhone 14, activated the Emergency SOS by the use of satellite tv for pc and alerted an Apple lend a hand middle. The name middle then knowledgeable Northern 911 in Canada, which then contacted British Columbia emergency products and services, conveying the GPS location.
According to Dwight Yochim, a senior supervisor with BC Search and Rescue, the crew that rescued the ladies, this was once most likely the primary use of the function in British Columbia. He known as it a “game changer” and added that if it was once now not for the SOS, the rescue operations would have lasted for every week involving a couple of groups.
Yochim additionally stated that the crew was once in contact with Apple to carry categories for SAR managers to transient extra in this era, which has the “potential of reducing the time and effort it takes to save lives”.
The protection function works with out WiFi or mobile carrier because it shall we customers textual content emergency products and services by the use of satellite tv for pc. The function, these days to be had in america, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, does now not serve as in India because of strict regulations round satellite tv for pc connectivity.
This isn’t the primary time that Apple units have stored the lives of its customers. In December 2022, a person who was once touring from Noorvik to Alaska was once stranded in a faraway location. He activated the emergency SOS by the use of satellite tv for pc function, which the tech large’s Emergency Response Center used to alert the quest and rescue division.