Apple’s Emergency SOS feature over satellite has been available for a while. This feature, which has led to countless survival stories, almost changes the rules of the game. A recent case confirms this when two women missing in Canada were found using a satellite emergency search feature. Details are here…

Two women were recently reported missing near McBride, a small village in British Columbia, Canada, on their way home after visiting Alberta. Unfortunately, while trying to find their way back, they got into a car accident and got stuck in an area with no cell phone network.

They drove about 20 kilometers down the road before hitting a “wall of snow” that showed where the plow stopped and got stuck. The two women found themselves in a rather hopeless situation. Fortunately, one of the women had an iPhone 14 and decided to use the new satellite emergency call feature. Using the iPhone 14, they were able to send a message and their location to Apple’s call center.

From there, Apple’s call center contacted the “Northern911” call center in Canada and then activated the emergency call. Rescuers pulled the vehicle out of the snow and helped it turn around and get back on the road. Dwight Yochim, senior director of British Columbia Search and Rescue, said he believes this is the “first use” of the new feature in British Columbia.

“There is no cellular service, but one of them had a new Apple phone with SOS and SOS enabled, and this is the first use of SOS in British Columbia as far as I know. If they didn’t have it, their family or business would eventually say ‘hey, they didn’t come’ , so the search area would be from where they were last seen to where they were supposed to be, and it could be several hundred kilometers.”

In terms of context, Joachim estimates that his team makes around 1,700 to 1,800 searches per year. Emergency SOS over satellite on iPhone 14 can significantly reduce the number.