The iPhone feature which when announced was seen as having the potential to save lives has been used for the first time in our area of the world, with two hikers being rescued after using Emergency SOS via Satellite on their iPhone 14 to reach out to emergency services.
Hiking just northwest of Christchurch in the Arthurs Pass National Park, the two hikers found themselves in a risky situation where water levels in the area were rising and it became unsafe to cross the river.
Being out of normal mobile service, they were unable to call emergency services, instead their iPhone 14 showed the Satellite notification icon, and they were able to initiate emergency contact via the Emergency SOS via Satellite feature which was launched in Australia and New Zealand back in May of this year.
Using this service, the duo were able to report their status, their exact location and have that communicated to emergency services, with responses letting them know help was on the way.
A rescue helicopter was dispatched by West Coast Air Rescue which arrived to lift the hikers to safety.
Emergency SOS via Satellite will also work in the case of a crash or fall that happens outside of mobile coverage with Simon Lyford, Fire and Emergency Shift Manager saying: "The phones can tell if there's been an impact and it came through as a notification."
"It's only on the Apple iPhones, people need to have it turned on but it will come through to police - a computer-generated voice will give a longitude and latitude of the crash and say it's detected a crash."
Hikers not planning long trips who have an iPhone 14 can use the service if things go wrong, however it's not intended to replace the use of an EPIRB, which is a radio beacon for locating lost travellers, and is recommended for anyone serious about hiking or trekking.
