The first use of Apple iPhone’s new Emergency SOS via satellite in B.C. looks to have saved the lives of two women who were stranded in the wilderness near McBride.
Hanna Petersen for the Times Colonist:
Luckily one of the two women had the iPhone 14, when the pair got lost on their trip back to Alberta on Dec. 23.
An accident had closed the highway so the women checked Google Maps for an alternate route and decided to take a detour through the Holmes Forest Service Road.
The road was partially plowed, as it had been plowed the previous week, and the women made to where the grader had stopped.
“Then it was basically a wall of snow and when they tried to get through it, they got stuck,” explained Dwight Yochim, senior manager with BC Search and Rescue.
He said they were approximately 20 kilometres down the road, stuck in the snow with no one knowing where they were and no cell service.
“There’s no cell service there but one of them happened to have the new Apple phone that has the SOS in it and activated the SOS and to my knowledge, that’s the first use of the SOS in British Columbia.”
“They found them, pulled their vehicle out and got them turned around and back on the way,” said Yochim. “It’s the kind of thing that it potentially may have saved their life.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yet more lives saved thanks to an Apple device!
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Stop using Google maps
Google maps info?
I live in BC. It is obviously a vast place with mostly mountains and forest. It was really stupid of them to take a service road, especially in this weather. There are several such roads across the province. It’s also not good because there are some bad characters lurking in the forest in some places and bad things end up happening to people.
Somebody needs to make a movie about this. Not sure where these people were from, but so many people who aren’t from here get lost or worse, and our search and rescue has to go try and find them. Sometimes it’s a sad ending.
Don’t ever go into the forest by yourself, especially as a woman. Don’t go into places you aren’t familiar with without some survival supplies, including a small emergency blanket. Ensure you have some external batteries to charge your devices. Tell people you know what your plan is and stick to it. Make sure you have a tool that can also be a weapon, like a small knife, an axe, etc. Don’t EVER go down service roads at night unless you have no choice and are prepared. And do not rely on mapping software in in the forest/off highway. Just don’t. Use your eyes and your mind to plot out where you think you are when you are lost and your devices fail: in northern BC, if you stuck in the forest follow, the direction of the sun are and plot landmarks in the forest to back yourself out.
“There are several such roads across the province”
There are hundreds, if not thousands actually.
Women driving around ignorantly and nearly dying because of their ridiculous irresponsibility and poor planning. Feminism at it’s best. I can’t imagine why you would need men. :eyeroll: