• Upon receiving an alert from Apple's Emergency Response Center via iPhone 14, Alaska State Troopers worked with local search and rescue teams and the Northwest Arctic Borough Search and Rescue Coordinator to rescue the trapped person
Apple introduced the Emergency SOS satellite feature with the iPhone 14 series. The feature went live in the US and Canada a few weeks ago. Now, a man is crediting the emergency facility with saving his life when he found himself stranded in the mountains of Alaska.
First reported by MacRumours, a man traveling from Nurvik to Kotzebue in Alaska got stuck in a cold, remote location on December 1, 2022, when his snowmobile went down. Thankfully he was an iPhone user and had an iPhone 14. He activated Emergency SOS via the satellite feature on his iPhone 14. Apple's Emergency Response Center then replaced the Search and Rescue department and shared its GPS coordinates shared by the iPhone 14.
Upon receiving the alert, Alaska State Troopers worked with local search and rescue teams and the Northwest Arctic Borough Search and Rescue Coordinator to rescue the trapped person. He was eventually rescued without injury. What is impressive here is that the Apple satellite feature should not have worked in the area where it was located as it was in an area where satellite connectivity is available. According to Apple, satellite connectivity may not work in locations above 62° latitude, such as northern parts of Canada and Alaska. Noorvik and Kotzebue, where the man was trapped, are close to 69° latitude.
The team of rescuers later said they were "impressed by the accuracy and completeness of the information included in the initial alert," sent by Emergency SOS via the Satellite feature on the iPhone 14. Here is a note from Dispatch shared by the Alaska Department of Public Safety. State Troopers on their website:
On December 1, 2022, at approximately 2:00 a.m., Alaska State Troopers were notified that an adult male traveling via snowmachine from Nurvik to Kotzebue received an Apple iPhone emergency call via satellite on his iPhone after becoming stranded. SOS was activated.
Working with local search and rescue teams, the Apple Emergency Response Center, and the Northwest Arctic Borough Search and Rescue Coordinator, NWAB SAR deployed four volunteer searchers directly to the Nimiuk Point area at GPS coordinates provided by the Apple Emergency Response Center . The adult male was located by a volunteer search party and taken to Kotzebue. There is no information about the injuries of the soldiers.
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