Apple's Emergency SOS iPhone feature saved a woman and her dog caught in a flash flood

2023-08-31 01:19

A woman and her dog were rescued after a flash flood in Utah thanks to

A woman and her dog were rescued after a flash flood in Utah thanks to an emergency feature on her iPhone.

A 38-year-old woman was able to send her GPS coordinates through Apple's Emergency SOS via Satellite feature after being swept away by floodwaters, according to the Grand County Sheriff's Search and Rescue unit. The unit received her coordinates and eventually reached her and her dog.

The feature which comes with iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro uses satellite connectivity to send a message to local responders in an emergency where there is no cell service. The feature was designed exactly for instances like this, where people might be stranded or injured in the wilderness.

The unnamed woman had been hiking with her dog in Mary Jane Canyon, when she heard a flash flood coming. She tried to get to higher ground, but the rising waters reached her. She was carried her down the canyon, about "150-200 feet," losing her shoes in the process. After that, she enabled the emergency SOS feature on her iPhone, but got a message back saying, saying "Message Send Failure."

Reasonably assuming the message didn't go through, she began to hike barefoot down the canyon. However, Search and Rescue did receive her message at 7:22 p.m., and eventually found her via helicopter two miles from her original GPS location. Since the chopper was unable to land, the ground crew was dispatched and found her at 9:25 p.m. "covered in mud from head to toe," but uninjured.

Emergency SOS via Satellite has been a literal lifesaver in many instances since it was first released. Recently, amidst the devastating wildfires in Maui, a family was trapped in their car without cell service and successfully used the feature to get help. In July, a man was saved after his car went off a 400-foot cliff after Apple's Crash Detection and Emergency SOS was activated on his iPhone 14.

It's unclear why the stranded hiker initially received a message saying her alert didn't go through, but Mashable has reached out to Apple and will update the story if it receives a response.