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Find My IPhone Used To Locate Plane Crash In Chile

Posted by samzenpus on from the last-call dept.

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.'"

6 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Bah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    An Android phone would have lasted until the search party arrived!

    1. Re:Bah! by CheerfulMacFanboy · · Score: 4, Funny

      An Android phone would have lasted until the search party arrived!

      The coming iPhone 5 would have safely landed the plane.

      --
      Fandroids hate facts.
    2. Re:Bah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      A Windows phone would've prevented the plane from taking off at all!

  2. Which also explains the cause of the crash... by Halo1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... someone didn't switch off their phone.

    --
    Donate free food here
  3. Uruguayan Air _Force_Flight_571 by Kylon99 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  4. Military operated, but was a civilian trip by Sir+Mal+Fet · · Score: 4, Informative
    To put this in a bit of context, Robinson Crusoe Island (Isla Juan Fernandez is the official name) is very isolated and mostly inhabited by fishermen, and some scientific personnel. It was heavily struck by the tsunami after the earthquake last year, so the national state TV (TVN) conducted a series of short shows about the reconstruction of the island. The flight was carrying personnel to record a follow-up show.

    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).