Even rescue workers were impressed by the function: the iPhone 14’s satellite emergency call saved a man from the Alaskan cold. Nobody got hurt.
Can save lives when there is no mobile network: satellite emergency call function on the iPhone 14. (Source: MacRumors)
- Emergency satellite calling is available for iPhone 14 users with iOS 16.1.
- This enables communication with rescue authorities even when there is no mobile network available.
- On December 1st, the functionality was put to the test for the first time.
It is one of the first cases of this kind: a man stranded in the Alaskan wilderness with a snowmobile was successfully rescued – thanks to a satellite emergency call he made with the iPhone 14.
The area where the man was traveling with his snowmobile is in the US state of Alaska. The man was commuting between the two cities of Noorvik and Kotzebue when an unspecified emergency occurred that required emergency services to be called.
This emergency call was received by the authorities in the early hours of December 1st. The 911 call, coordinated by Apple’s Emergency Response Center, included the caller’s exact GPS location, allowing four rescue workers to quickly locate and pick up the man. The man was unharmed.
Interesting: Actually, the man was not in the coverage area of the satellite emergency call (according to Apple up to the 62nd degree of latitude, the emergency call was made near the 69th degree of latitude). Nevertheless, he reached the authorities. According to MacRumors, they were impressed by the “accuracy and completeness of the data transmitted”.
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