iPhone 14 Saves Man's Life After He Plummeted 400 Feet Into Canyon

A man was saved by his iPhone 14's emergency features on Friday evening after he drove his car off a cliff and plummeted 400 feet into a canyon in the Mount Wilson area near Los Angeles, according to the local CBS affiliate.

iPhone 14 Car Crash Detection
The two iPhone 14 features that helped to save the man's life were Crash Detection and Emergency SOS via satellite. First, the iPhone automatically detected a severe car crash. Second, the device automatically sent a text message to an emergency relay center via satellite connection, since the crash site was outside of the range of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage. The message included precise location information, and a local search and rescue team was able to find and rescue the man with use of a helicopter.

"He was 400 feet down in a canyon with virtually no way out," said Steve Goldsworthy, Rescue Operations Leader at Montrose Search and Rescue. "So, who knows when, or if, we would've located him." Another member of the search and rescue team said the man likely would have bled out had he not been rescued in a timely manner.

Crash Detection is enabled by default on all iPhone 14 models. In the U.S., Emergency SOS via satellite requires an iPhone 14 updated to iOS 16.1 or later.

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Top Rated Comments

macsplusmacs Avatar
20 months ago
Another sheriff said due to trees / brush and it being night and the time of day, it could have taken a helicopter 10 hours.

10 freaking hours to find him.

Kudos to the apple team that led this effort.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
h.gilbert Avatar
20 months ago
Conveniently forgot to mention he fell down precisely because he was looking at his iPhone 14
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
20 months ago
Excellent news! Savings lives over here.

Only iPhone is capable of doing this. No other smartphone exists in this world that can report crash detection as the iPhone 14.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
himanshumodi Avatar
20 months ago
Forget the phone. What car was he driving? Surviving a 400 ft drop, and surviving, feels like a solid car!
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple Fan 2008 Avatar
20 months ago
Cue the flood of negative comments
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iLoveDeveloping Avatar
20 months ago
That’s amazing technology!!! Hope he is ok. I actually just learned the iPhone can text emergency services via satellite ON ITS OWN! Like why is Apple not saying this!? That’s insanely cool! I literally just read it last night in the iPhone user guide.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)