iPhone 14’s SOS satellite emergency feature leads to rescue after car crash in Angeles National Forest’s Monkey Canyon

MONKEY CANYON, Calif. — A man and woman used the iPhone 14’s emergency SOS feature and were rescued Tuesday after their car plunged about 300 meters into a canyon in the Angeles National Forest, authorities said.

Shortly before 2 p.m., the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Crescenta Valley station received a notification from an iPhone 14 via satellite service, the agency said. The victims, both in their 20s, were involved in a one-vehicle accident near mile marker 18.87 in Monkey Canyon, where their car went “off the side of the mountain,” according to the Montrose Search and Rescue Team.

“They were in a remote canyon with no cellphone service” and were able to get out of the vehicle, the team said in a statement.

Using emergency satellite service on their iPhone 14, the victims were able to communicate with a dispatch center via text, authorities said. The center contacted the station, which dispatched Search and Rescue, LA County firefighters, sheriff’s patrol units and a helicopter.

After the call center provided the latitude and longitude of the victims’ location, the rescue helicopter was able to locate them and land a helper by cable. The man and woman suffered minor to moderate injuries in the crash, where their vehicle overturned at the bottom of the canyon.

Video provided by the Sheriff’s Department shows the victims being lifted into the helicopter. They were then transported to a hospital, authorities said.

The cause of the crash was unknown.