Apple: Emergency SOS via satellite available today (US and Canada)

Re:Apple: Emergency SOS via satellite available today (US an... by tony_cannistra on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @01:47PM (#33613250)

Actually, I'm not sure this is good advice. Two-way commiunicators are vastly preferred by Search and Rescue organizations.

The reason for this is that they can learn about what they need to do and who they need to send to you, because they can ask you.

If you have a broken leg, they'll send in 10 people to get you out. Dehydrated? Two responders and water.

Calls that come in from "dumb" communicators like PLBs are more likely to get a 1-2 person "hasty" team assigned to them who can arrive quickly then call in more reinforcements if necessary. A SAR org. isn't going to put 10 volunteers on a PLB call that ends up being a rolled ankle, at least not immediately.

This has the potential to greatly delay the time to care for you, especially for more severe emergencies.

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Re:Apple: Emergency SOS via satellite available today (US an... by widforss on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @02:38PM (#33613914)

I'm on a SAR team. We literally deployed 10 people on both PLB's and Inreaches last winter. SAR people are cheap

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Re:Apple: Emergency SOS via satellite available today (US an... by biomcgary on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @02:47PM (#33614038)

SAR people may largely be volunteers, but helicopters have fairly expensive operational costs. In time-sensitive situations, it is better to have two way communications (because it keeps SAR as inexpensive as possible). See my sister comment for my wife's experience.

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Re:Apple: Emergency SOS via satellite available today (US an... by widforss on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @03:07PM (#33614299)

Those two operations were made using snow mobiles, but yes, as soon as helicopters com into the picture, the costs skyrocket.

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Re:Apple: Emergency SOS via satellite available today (US an... by danuker on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @07:45PM (#33617386)

> because it keeps SAR as inexpensive as possible

"Hurry, but please hold the helicopter, I won't make enough money for the rest of my life to pay for it, whether I survive or not."

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Re:Apple: Emergency SOS via satellite available today (US an... by circular_lights on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @09:25PM (#33618060)

I was wondering who foots the bill for the equipment

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Re:Apple: Emergency SOS via satellite available today (US an... by widforss on Wednesday November 16, 2022 @01:23AM (#33619581)

In our case, our org (Norwegian Red Cross) buy the equipment using sponsor money and the like. Then we get reimbursed by the government for using them in SAR operations.

It works well enough for us to have maybe 4 snowmobiles, 2 6-wheel ATV's, a 4 person rope rescue kit, 10 TETRA phones and a car in addition to various medical equipment.

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Re:Apple: Emergency SOS via satellite available today (US an... by tony_cannistra on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @03:02PM (#33614220)

Totally.

It sounds like your team has the advantage of having a large volunteer corpus. I wish they all did.

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Re:Apple: Emergency SOS via satellite available today (US an... by biomcgary on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @02:43PM (#33613986)

My wife has an InReach. While hiking in Colorado, she encountered a woman who started going into shock (for no obvious reason!). Because of the satellite-based texting, SAR determined that Medivac chopper was more appropriate than land based rescue. Doctors said that the woman had 1-2 hours before death / permanent injury, so the most likely outcome of only having an emergency beacon would have been her death.

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Re:Apple: Emergency SOS via satellite available today (US an... by oofbey on Tuesday November 15, 2022 @06:51PM (#33616939)

This is a very telling example, and probably not uncommon.

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