Necessity is the mother of invention
Snowed in, without reception and alone: Man hangs smartphone on drone to get help – and saves two lives
The police recreated what it looked like when the smartphone flew through the national park on a drone.
© Lane County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue
A driver got stuck in a US national park in Oregon. There was no reception and nobody knew where he was. Then he got inventive.
Anyone who needs help in one of the huge American national parks often has a problem: there is often no cell phone reception in these unspoilt areas, which makes it extremely difficult to request help. It gets even more complicated when you are stuck in your car and snowed in.
This recently happened to a man who was driving through Oregon’s Willamette National Forest but got stuck in his car. According to the Lane County Sheriff’s Office he used a road that is not cleared in winter. In his distress, however, he became surprisingly inventive.
The flight altitude of the drone enabled mobile phone reception
As the authority writes on Facebook, the man made “several wise decisions”. First, he stayed with his vehicle – most of the deaths are among people who set off on foot. Second, the man found a clever way to get help despite the lack of cell phone reception.
According to the police report, he attached his cell phone to a drone that he happened to have in the car. He typed a message to a contact detailing his exact location. He then pressed send and let the drone climb “several hundred meters”. Due to the enormous height, it was possible to connect the smartphone to a transmission mast and send the message. The contact then called the emergency services, who freed the man.
Second man rescued – warning from police
During the rescue operation, another man was accidentally discovered in his car who had been stuck in the snow for “several days”. The authorities were also able to save him thanks to the drone message.
That uses the special case Lane County Sheriff’s Officeto point out the dangers of trips to the national parks despite the happy outcome of this situation. The forest roads are not suitable for winter service and can therefore only be used with several “well equipped” vehicles.
The warning is aimed in particular at drivers of off-road vehicles, since, according to the authorities, they often assume that the vehicles were built for precisely this purpose. If you do set off on the forest roads, you should definitely tell other people about it and not deviate from the plans. If a certain period of time has been exceeded, help can be requested.