Filed under: iPod Family, Odds and ends
iPod: Music player, rescue signal
On Tuesday, KRQE in New Mexico reported that the light from an iPod helped searchers find a snowboarder who'd been lost for nearly two nights in frigid weather. When snowboarder Sebastian Gomez saw rescue helicopters looking for him after more than a day missing, he dug in his pockets and emerged with his iPod and a lighter. He waved both around. The rescuers, wearing night-vision goggles, spotted the small lights from the two objects and were able to retrieve him.
Like with the thwarted thief, this is a great story about an ingenious use for an iPod. Maybe it could be candidate for inclusion in a worst-case scenario book one day.
Thanks for the tip, Allan!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jake said 10:19AM on 1-11-2009
I thought for a moment you were going to say he used the lighter to torch the iPod and the rescuers saw the flames.
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Oliver said 10:26AM on 1-11-2009
so that's what those incredibly bright screens are used for... i don't know about you, but i've NEVER used the 100% brightness setting on my ipod, 50 is enough for me, 100 is just painful to keep my eye on.
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Rylin said 11:16AM on 1-11-2009
What happened to your other eye?
Oliver said 11:28AM on 1-11-2009
haha, good one, rylin
Phil M said 3:00PM on 1-11-2009
100% brightness happened to it.
Marco said 1:11PM on 1-11-2009
I live in albuquerque and I saw that on the news!!
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champs794 said 1:11PM on 1-11-2009
This is the kind of non-story that makes me happy to dump my TUAW feed. The snowboarder was "saved by an iPod," never mind that any cell phone would have been just as useful as a light, with the bonus of being able to *call* for help, or that... y'know... that lighter could have started a signal fire.
Of course this whole disaster might have been avoided if the snowboarder wasn't listening to an iPod and carrying a lighter for... uhh... the stuff snowboarders keep lighters for.
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Brendan said 1:20PM on 1-12-2009
Boo hoo, then drop it from your RSS. No one's making you read TÚAW.
iPod is an Apple product. This is an Apple weblog. The story shows how he had his iPod handier than his mobile phone.
iest said 1:26PM on 1-11-2009
Pipe down champs794.
If you want to dump you're tuaw feed, then good for you, but why do you feel you need to tell the rest of us?
And anyway, it wasn't a mobile phone that saved him, was it? It was a lighter and an iPod.
Lighters have the capacity to light many things, including cigarettes, paper, coats, and faces. What are you trying to imply snowboarders use them to light?
Thank you tuaw for showing me a story that otherwise I wouldn't have known about! Don't let trolls like this bring you down.
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Hank said 4:40PM on 1-11-2009
Actually, I agree with champs.
acduke said 12:19AM on 1-12-2009
My biggest surprise gift during Christmas was that very Worst Case Scenario book linked in this article. I must say that it is probably one of the most amazing books I've ever opened. Get it, if you're into that sort of thing, and even if you're not it should provide a good laugh. 5/5 stars.
Has anyone been rescued yet via one of those iPhone flashlight apps with the S.O.S. beacon? They would only have about an hour to use it though before the battery died. You would want that sucker on full brightness.
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JGO said 8:48PM on 1-14-2009
The moment I read that he had a lighter, I had to wonder why he was on his second day in the backcountry. If he had been a skiier, and therefore had common sense, he would have made a signal fire, and increased his chances of being rescued the first night. Unfortunately, he was a snowboarder, and decided to sit on his ass in the cold snow, and listen to his iPod, rather than building a fire to keep him warm and signal for help. The helicopter probably saw him by mistake, just as he was changing playlists, and lighting up another doob.
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scott said 12:20AM on 1-15-2009
why did this just come into my RSS mail feed?
this is an old article???
WTF
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