Last week, the iPhone 14’s satellite emergency calling feature rescued three students canyoning in Utah who were stranded in an area with no cell phone service. Introduced last September, Emergency SOS over satellite is designed to give “iPhone 14” users access to satellite communications to get help in an emergency.

Participating students chatted KUTV He described Utah and their perilous ordeal. One of the students, Bridger Woods, said the three had heard of “a pretty cool canyon” and decided to check it out because they’ve been canyoning for about a year.

Inside the canyon, they encountered an area of ​​unexpectedly deep water, potentially caused by Utah’s wet winter. Woods and another student, Jeremy Mumford, were stuck in the pool for over an hour, but eventually managed to get out and go deeper. They came across another pool where the water was up to their breasts and could not get out.

Two of the students were experiencing symptoms of hypothermia and there was no cell phone signal due to the location of the canyon, but a third student, Stephen Watts, had an iPhone 14. Mumford said “satellites line up” every 20 minutes. By positioning and holding the phone, they can receive enough satellite signal to send a 911 message.

While waiting for the emergency services, the trio managed to get out of the deep water with ropes and carabiners. Because Woods was in hypothermic shock, they still couldn’t get out of the 3-15-foot hole they were in. Instead, they found driftwood and lit a fire to keep warm as emergency crews came to help.

A helicopter crew from Salt Lake City arrived with paramedics from Arizona, and all three students were ultimately unharmed. the group told KUTV recommends taking a satellite phone on an adventure in an emergency.

Emergency SOS via satellite is already being used in many other life-threatening situations, such as when an Alaskan is stranded in the wilderness and people are involved in a serious accident in California’s Angeles National Forest.

Emergency Satellite via SOS is available to all ‌iPhone 14‌ users in certain countries and can be activated in an emergency when there is no Wi-Fi or cellular connection. The feature is free for two years, and Apple has yet to detail how much it will cost in the future.