Here’s how you can use the iPhone’s emergency SOS that saved a man on the Swiss mountains

• A snowboarder stuck in the Swiss mountains was rescued after he used the iPhone's emergency SOS service.
• Tim Blakey, a 41-year old snowboarder fell into a crack in the glacier and was stuck below the ice.
• Here’s how you can use the emergency SOS feature to connect to emergency services.

Apple’s emergency SOS functionality recently saved the life of a snowboarder who was skiing near a glacier in Zermatt, Switzerland. Tim Blakey took to Instagram to thank Swiss rescue services and Apple for rescuing him.

The 41-year old Blakey with over 17 years of snowboarding experience cheated death after a hidden gap in the ice sent him falling over 15 feet while he was snowboarding on a Swiss mountain. The snowboarder reportedly fell into the crevasse, which is a crack in the glacier while snowboarding alone.

Luckily, Blakey landed on a snow bridge, which he described as ‘fragile’. He added that he would have fallen to his death if the snow bridge hadn’t been there to stop his fall.

Here’s how Tim Blakey survived

Blakey revealed that he was nearly 16 feet below ice and was not able to get out by himself. His iPhone had only 3% battery left, and water was dripping on the display. Fortunately, he was able to connect to a 3G signal and use the iPhone’s emergency SOS service shortcut.

Blakey was able to use the iPhone’s 5-click to emergency services shortcut to connect to emergency services. He added that it took 20 minutes for him to reach someone on the phone and he was rescued 45 minutes later. Luckily, he escaped just with a ligament injury to his ankle.

“Life 2.0 starts now. Thank you to all my close friends and family for all your support and love. It’s been really really amazing. I obviously promise never to do it again mum and dad. Sorry,” Blakey added in his Instagram post.

How to use Apple’s emergency SOS on your iPhone

If you are ever stuck in a situation where you need to contact your local emergency services, here’s how you can use the emergency SOS shortcut on your iPhone –

• Press and hold the side button and one of the volume buttons until the emergency SOS slider appears. Now, drag the slider to connect to emergency services.
  
• If you are unable to drag the slider for some reason, you can continue to hold the buttons and a countdown will begin with an alert sound. Once the countdown ends, you will be connected with emergency services.
  
• If you are using iPhone 7 or older devices, all you need to do is press the side button three times (five times if you are outside India) to connect to emergency services.
  

In addition to connecting you to emergency services, this feature from Apple also sends a test message with your location to your emergency contacts.

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