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Find My IPhone Used To Locate Plane Crash In Chile
spagiola writes "Late last week, a military transport aircraft with 17 people on -board went missing near Robinson Crusoe, Chile. The relatives of one of the crash victims logged into Find My iPhone and were able to isolate the coordinates of the last known whereabouts of the plane before it crashed. From the article: 'Rear Admiral Francisco García-Huidobro explained the founding that
garnered a lot of attention today, and it has to do with an iPhone belonging to
one of the victims of the aereal accident in Juan Fernández, in a beach
in Bahía Carvajal. The phone signal could be captured thanks to the GPS system, however, water
ended up shutting it down. Nevertheless, García Huidoro explained that they
managed to plot the last position from where the signal was last generated, which
will be made public tomorrow.'"
Although it's not just limited to the iPhone. http://www.locatemydroid.com/ Really, though, this is pretty awesome.
.-.
An Android phone would have lasted until the search party arrived!
... someone didn't switch off their phone.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571
Hearing of a crash in Chile brings up memories of the Andes flight accident in 1972, or better known to some people as the movie, "Alive". Ok, so this time the crash was nowhere near the Andes, but an island.
But I've always wondered what would've happened if in 1972, they had GPS and mapping technology the way we do today. They could've easily seen where they were without the guesswork and literally strolled off the mountain to the east in less than a day, perhaps. A 20km walk to the east would've gotten them to the highway at least... and at least they would've been off the mountain into thicker and a warmer atmosphere. Not to mention they may have been able to forage for food quickly. ( http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=Uruguayan+Air+Force+Flight+571+-+Mendoza+Province,+Argentina&hl=en )
I hope technology will improve our chances of survival with accidents like this in the future.
This was a military operated flight, but only brought civilians (two well-known TV presenters, persons from the National Culture Council, camera men, producers, and people related with the TV network, a businessman and philanthropist which had a ONG regarding the reconstruction, and personnel of said ONG) to record the show, so to answer your question, no, probably there were no problems regarding the tracking of military operations.
So far the weather conditions plus the fact that the plane crashed at sea has caused that only few bodies have been found (4 confirmed out of 21), so the signal from the iPhone was an important lead to the victims' bodies whereabouts. It certainly beats the clairvoyants they are also using (seriously).
Military aircraft in the region are often used to support scientific missions and for other civilian purposes. Even if a true military flight, say transportation of cargo, they may allow civilians and off duty military personnel to hitch a ride if there is nothing classified on board. Not every military flight is performed under combat conditions. Sometimes they communicate with civilian air traffic control, have their transponder broadcasting an ID, have all the navigation lights turned on, and may very well allow personal gadgets on board and perhaps even powered up.
The wreck contained a missing prototype IPhone which was located and recovered by the Apple Security Scuba Team.
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