Find My iPhone Helps Find the Location of a Chilean Plane Crash

by Kara Kaloplastos | Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Last week, a plane crashed off the island off of Robinson Crusoe in Chile, in which rescuers are currently searching for the 17 missing victims. Although this is a devastating event, what’s interesting about it is that one of the victims’ relatives managed to locate the plane with his Find My iPhone application, which allows users to locate their iPhones using GPS. The plane ended up blowing off course before eventually crashing, and the last coordinates discovered on the Find My iPhone application were sent to the Navy in order to coordinate the rescue.

I’m interested in this story because we hear so often about the availability of such technology being used in a detrimental or invasive way. Even when intricate GPS technology becomes available to the public in a well-intentioned way (for instance, lost pets or locating kidnapped children), there always seems to be a catch-22. GPS technology in the hands of everyday civilians is often questionable, but in this case, technology has made it capable for a person to take a dire situation into their own hands and assist authorities in making a speedy and appropriate response. I’ll say, you don’t get to read about that every day!

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