A helicopter’s view of a mountain rescue – Image Credit: King County Sheriff Air Support
The Apple Watch helped save the lives of injured skiers in Washington after falling approximately 1,000 feet down a mountain, thanks to an SOS alert.
On Wednesday, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office in Washington were informed of an Apple Watch SOS alert. The notification from Apple’s wearable came from a skier located near Steven’s Pass, a popular ski resort.
Rescuers didn’t have much information to go on, except that a skier had fallen on the mountain, and had injured a leg. The skier reportedly fell approximately 1,000 foot in their accident, reports Fox Weather.
The King County Sheriff’s Air Support Unit was summoned to the scene, arriving just after sunset on that day. In video footage released of the rescue, infrared vision was used to locate a group of skiers, with the helicopter then lowering a rescuer to the ground.
After some initial treatment, the injured skier was hoisted to the helicopter ready for transportation.
The lowered crewmember determined that one of the other skiers had hurt their knee to a point where they couldn’t walk. At that point, it was decided that all of the skiers would be hoisted and brought down the mountain safely.
There have yet to be reports on the condition of the injured skiers.
Repeatedly assistive
The Apple Watch has a habit of being praised for repeatedly getting assistance to injured parties following an accident. In an emergency, it has frequently been used to save lives.
In December, a man was saved after his car crashed upside down into a neighbor’s pool. Crash Detection automatically called emergency services, with an operator using the Apple Watch to communicate to the man throughout the incident.
Apple CEO Tim Cook also revealed in January that the Apple Watch had helped his father in one emergency.
Features like Emergency SOS, Fall Detection, and Crash Detection have all helped injured people by making it easy to call for help, or doing so on their behalf. This helps reduce the amount of time help can take to arrive, especially in instances when the Apple Watch owner is unconscious and could not make the call.
It is unclear exactly what function summoned help. The limited data provided to rescuers and the extremely rural location could have involved the use of Emergency SOS via Satellite.
In areas where phone signal and Internet access is unavailable, Emergency SOS via Satellite on newer iPhone models can transmit a limited message via a satellite. The system uses a simple menu system and asks questions so that the low-bandwidth message gets through with the essential details.
