iPhone 14 Emergency SOS via Satellite SAVES man in Alaska!

iPhone 14 has proven itself with the one trick that Apple advertised the most. Back in September 2022, Apple announced the iPhone 14 series with a brand new Emergency SOS feature, promising easy rescue in tricky areas. Many were skeptical of the feature, suggesting this wasn’t enough to warrant an upgrade from the iPhone 13. However, an iPhone 14 user in Alaska just proved why everyone should get an iPhone 14, especially those travel to the wilderness.

In a new report from MacRumours, an incident shows how the iPhone 14’s satellite connectivity feature could be of great use in emergency situations. On December 1, the Alaska State Troopers received an SOS alert of a man stuck in the cold wilderness, when his snow machine went down and left him stranded. He was travelling from Noorvik to Kotzebue. In the cold remote location, his iPhone 14 came to the rescue.

iPhone 14 saves life in Alaska

The man used the Emergency SOS via satellite feature on his iPhone 14 to send an alert to local authorities. Once the alert was sent, the Apple Emergency response Center worked with local search and rescue teams, sending GPS coordinates to the volunteer searchers from Northwest Arctic Borough Search and Rescue Coordinator. The GPS coordinates were shared by the iPhone 14 itself.

The man was eventually saved with injuries. Moreover, the satellite connectivity feature on the iPhone 14 had worked in an area where it wasn’t supposed to work. Apple said it might not work in areas above 62 degrees latitude but the area between Noorvik and Kotzebue was situated at 69 degrees latitude.

The rescuers were also impressed with the accuracy of the data from the alert. Additionally, the feature also asks the user to provide information in terms of Q&A to help the rescuers better.

The iPhone 14 series gets the satellite SOS feature as standard and it was activated only lately with the iOS 16.1 update. The feature is currently free to use and will remain so for two years before Apple starts charging a fee for the service. Note that the feature is available in only select countries, and Indian users won’t be able to use it.