Man and Woman Rescued From Canyon After Activating iPhone 14 Emergency SOS Feature

Two people who careered off a mountainside in California were rescued and located after contacting emergency services through iPhone 14’s Emergency SOS satellite feature, MacRumors reports(Opens in a new window). 

According to a Twitter thread(Opens in a new window) documenting the Dec. 13 rescue by Montrose Search & Rescue Team (MSRT), the victims were “a male and female in their 20s.” The MSRT added that the victims were brought by helicopter to a local hospital with “mild and moderate injuries.”

Before being located and airlifted, the car-crash victims were able to “extricate themselves from the car”, and communicated to a “relay center via text” using the SOS satellite service on an iPhone 14, according to the thread.

The tweets state that emergency teams received a call from the Apple emergency satellite service at approximately 1:55 PM and that Apple’s emergency call center was able to provide “an accurate latitude and longitude for the victims.”

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The accident, which took place on the Angeles Forest Highway in the Angeles National Forest, led to the vehicle falling 300 feet in Monkey Canyon, according to rescuers.

A Twitter user with the handle @cloeleahfields replied(Opens in a new window) to the thread saying: “This was me. Honestly grateful for you guys and everyone… We are ok! Thank you all!” 

In a tweet(Opens in a new window) on her profile, the user added, “I’m grateful for everyone who has checked on me and thankful to still be here. It hasn’t hit me yet.” The tweet includes a photo of a woman wearing a neck brace with several bruises on her face in what looks like a hospital bed. The Twitter user also shared a photo of a badly damaged upturned vehicle at the bottom of a canyon, and a picture of a tire in a stream.

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The rescue was caught and documented on video, and shared on Twitter(Opens in a new window) by the Los Angeles Sheriff Department.

Montrose Search & Rescue Team did not immediately respond to our request for comment. 

The incident comes after a man in Alaska was rescued using the satellite feature. The service, which allows users to tap into satellite connectivity when cellular and Wi-Fi service is unavailable, was rolled out in the UK, France, Germany, and Ireland earlier this month. It is free for the first two years of use, but Apple has not said how much it will cost afterward.