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Man Stranded in Alaska Rescued After Using iPhone Emergency SOS Satelite Feature
- ThrowawayTestr 4y agoKeep in mind that your rescue is also dependent on the responders being competent https://youtu.be/LFLl9q-bEgk https://youtu.be/LFLl9q-bEgk
- swagasaurus-rex 4y agoSurely, but you’d be just as bad off when nobody knows you’re stranded
- runnerup 4y agoWhat a horror story
- Clent 4y agoThis is likely an isolated incident. From the first responder's perspective, this guy got lost in terrain intimately familiar to them. Lack of professionalism on the responders part. There are no professional adults in the chain of command or someone would have told them no. A a social media post with victim information is bad. To then criticize the victim. Are they trying to get themselves sued?
- TinkersW 4y agoThat guy seems like an idiot.. can't climb up <1000 feet, only .5 mile. The other two guys are able to come down easily... then he follows them up the hill, turns out he can get up it! Doesn't seem to realize he can simply soak his dehydrated food, doesn't need to heat it. Obviously they shouldn't have doxxed him, but damn some basic competence on his part..
- underwater 4y agoYeah I agree. In his story it sounds like he put himself into a situation with no backup if things went wrong. He didn't have water, only had dehydrated food, and only bought a single gas bottle. He hiked down a steep mountainside which he felt he couldn't hike back up. It sounded like thought he could use the SOS button as an instant escape button. In the end the Sheriff's department literally came and got him and his complaint is that they made a snarky Facebook post. That wasn't professional, but personally I'd prefer them doing that than me freezing to death.
- Someone 4y agoHe also didn’t read the elevation map, thinking terrain would be relatively flat between two points because they were at about equal height. Also, he said he took for maybe a week of food for a 4-day round trip, and, because, not finding water, he had to melt ice, he got a fuel shortage after day two that forced him (or at least he thought it forced him) to start rationing food after day two. In addition, he wasn’t at his destination at the end of day two, by a long stretch. I would think either of these would be a reason to turn around immediately. Or do I overlook something or misinterpret what he says?
- mint2 4y agoBoth parties were severely lacking. It’s actually true, as the naive backpacker noted, going up is trickier. That, and him being in an obviously had mental state mean the troopers should definitely be the ones going down to him. Doxing him was wrong and should lead to meaningful consequences, writing an anonymized account of the guys rescue and his mistakes that led him into the situation would have been fine. Dressing him down a bit privately after he was in safety would also be okay, giving him attitude during the rescue was not. The guy’s account leaves much to be desired as he doesn’t seem to have actually accepted what led him to make his way into the situation and instead seems more to justify his decisions. He did a few things that were good practices but completely neglected many non-optional wilderness best practices. He’s lucky to be alive. The most egregious issue is he seems to believe the garmin means he does not need back up plans and it gives him a false sense of security. The rescue button is absolute NOT a backup plan. Having a premium plan means nothing. Having insurance means nothing. None of those mean one should be any less cautious but the way he described having those things it seems like he was taking more risk than otherwise as if having insurance to pay for it means it’s less of a big deal to call for rescue. In his situation pushing sos was absolutely the right thing to do. But he should not have been in that situation in the first place, and that’s left out of his analysis.
- lzooz 4y agotldr?
- downrightmike 4y agoThis is going to lead to more people being saved, but also more people taking large risks that wouldn't have otherwise, good luck.
- squaredot 4y agoLuckily nobody applied this logic when thinking about introducing seatbelts and airbags.
- tobr 4y agoThey totally did. It used to be a common argument against mandatory seatbelts, that people would feel safer and drive more recklessly, killing more pedestrians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_legislation#Risk_compensation_and_other_theories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_legislation#Risk_com...
- melling 4y agoAccording to your article that’s not true. “A comprehensive 2003 US study also did "not find any evidence that higher seat belt usage has a significant effect on driving behavior." Their results showed that "overall, mandatory seat belt laws unambiguously reduce traffic fatalities.”
- kube-system 4y agoThe claim the above person made was that the argument was used, not that the argument was a good argument.
- bombcar 4y agoSome safety devices don’t encourage recklessness - id say seatbelts are in this category. However others could - perhaps ABS brakes and all wheel drive on slippery roads.
- bobbyi 4y agoApparently "snowmachine" is what they call a snowmobile in Alaska. I was confused because I thought that was a device that makes fake snow at ski slopes.
- lokar 4y agoThere is not as much need for machines that make snow in Alaska
- di456 4y agoSnow maker is what I'd call those
- taddevries 4y agoAs a former Snowmaker, they're just called guns. Snow guns if you're trying to be specific.
- atom058 4y agoIn Swedish, a snow maker is called a "snömaskin", which would become "snow machine" with the intuitive translation
- textadventure 4y agoSo someone did the thing advertised in the thing, and it did the thing as advertised. Sounds like they should have been more careful, maybe have a compass and overall know what they were doing.
- macintux 4y agoI don’t believe we know what went wrong to pass judgment on them.
- textadventure 4y ago"The man's snow machine became disabled, an ADPS spokesperson confirmed to Insider." https://www.businessinsider.com/stranded-man-alaska-rescued-apple-iphone-14-emergency-sos-satellite-2022-12 https://www.businessinsider.com/stranded-man-alaska-rescued-... So we know.
- macintux 4y agoDo we know whether they had a compass, as you felt they didn’t? Whether they had another emergency contact option? We know the driver was dressed appropriately. Mechanical failures happen.
- textadventure 4y agoSure, there are a plethora of things we don't know. But he was reportedly going from Noorvik to Kotzebue: https://imgur.com/a/GYfKk5w https://imgur.com/a/GYfKk5w which is one tiny town in the middle of nowhere, to another slightly larger town in the middle of nowhere. The emergency alert was received at around 2AM, so he was doing this in the middle of the night. It stands to reason that when you are in such conditions, you should be prepared for circumstances such as "what happens if my means of transportation breaks down". It seems like a risk was taken, and when you take a risk and things go wrong and you need to be rescued, you are putting the lives of other people at risk. Maybe it was all completely justified, but on paper it doesn't seem that way.
- csa 4y agoThat’s something like 50 miles (eyeballing the distance). … as the crow flies … at 1 am … in northern alaska … in the winter I don’t know that much about living in Alaska, so I don’t know which side of the brave/stupid line this falls. That said, my initial impression is squarely in the “stupid” category.
- di456 4y agoMany people who live in remote villages use snowmachines (snowmobiles outside of AK) as their primary means of transportation. The article doesn't get into how they got stranded or why they were out there. But let's not jump to "stupid" as there are many things that could have gone wrong, and they were properly clothed with fire starting material in hand.
- Someone 4y ago> at 1 am https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/kotzebue https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/kotzebue: > Sunrise Today: 12:09 > Sunset Today: 15:11 I think it’s unavoidable to travel in the dark in Alaska this time of year. They also may have tried for hours to get out without outside help.
- helloooooooo 4y agoAt 1 am the winter, it doesn’t matter if it is 8am or 5pm, it’s still dark out. So why does it being 1am matter?
- playingalong 4y agoI haven't checked today's weather, but it's likely colder at 1am than at 7 am on the same day.
- mattkrause 4y agoIt’s usually coldest right after dawn: the earth has been radiating heat all night, and is thus getting colder. The very early morning light isn’t yet strong enough to start driving the temperature back up.
- Cupertino95014 4y agoPassing judgment on someone when you don't know the relevant facts is generally a bad idea. If this was a tourist near Anchorage or Fairbanks or Denali, that's one thing, but there probably aren't many tourists up near Kotzebue, especially in December.
- ramraj07 4y agoWe know enough relevant facts- they went on a snow machine into the wilderness. Only got saved by an instrument that luckily worked as it’s advertised but not with a guarantee. Only an idiot would go out into the cold in Alaska depending on technology that explicitly says it might not work for you if you have a hill or you’re in a weird latitude. You can bet his townsfolk are talking about his stupidity as well. Maybe his baby was choking and he was going to get help. But maybe all our corrupt politicians are also held hostage by aliens and that’s why they’re corrupt? If we can’t judge anyone until all the facts are in then we can’t judge anyone ever. I’d prefer to judge with what I have but be ready to amend when new information comes in.
- labrador 4y agoAlaska natives apparently don't have much sympathy for those from the lower 48 who get in trouble because they didn't research or prepare for Alaskan conditions before venturing out. The majority of Alaskans share some version of the opinion that McCandless was deeply out of his element The Cult of Chris McCandless https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/the-cult-of-chris-mccandless-20121015/ https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/the-cult-of-chris-mcca... made famous by "Into The Wild" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild_(film)
- Cupertino95014 4y agoDo you have any evidence at all that this was someone from the lower 48?
- labrador 4y ago
- dangerboysteve 4y agoGuessing, the Apple media team is being dispatched to Alaska to film a segment on this for future commercials or Apple event.
- signatoremo 4y agoThey should, and if they don’t other people should. It’s a life saving feature using a device manage people already carry, and I don’t think many people are aware of it.
- di456 4y agoAbsolutely. Stand alone GPS transponders with satelite connections must be expensive too. Having this as an extra layer of protection seems like a game changer.
- beej71 4y agoKinda pricey for the standalone, but not too bad. $300 for a starter Garmin. But you'll have about a $160 per year subscription. (I've had one for years--it's been invaluable peace of mind on solo trips.) The Garmin uses Iridium; the iPhone is apparently Globalstar. So don't try using the iPhone at the poles. ;) Great to see it coming to phones. Maybe Pixel will get on board.
- plastiquebeech 4y agoTop Gear did this, back when they were still on the BBC. They dropped one presenter and a camera crew out of a helicopter around the top of a hill-climb OHV track in the Canadian wilderness, and had them activate an emergency beacon. The other two had to perform a rescue race in pickup trucks. Overall, it was an entertaining ad.
- lostlogin 4y agoIsn’t Top Gear still on the BBC? Or are you meaning the Top Gear with Clarkson? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear_(2002_TV_series) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear_(2002_TV_series)
- musicale 4y agoToo bad that PC mag just published its last (digital) issue, ending its 40-year run as a magazine. Does Ziff Davis have any remaining monthly publications? I wonder how long pcmag.com will last?