Press the on/off switch on the iPhone five times – this is how you make an emergency call with Apple cell phones. The GPS data is also sent to helpers in this way. This feature was the salvation for the British man who had an accident. With a battery level of three percent, Blakey was able to call for help at the last second.
“I still had a power bank in my backpack, but had to move very carefully to reach it,” recalls the snowboarder. It took him 20 minutes to reach the mountain rescue service. And since he already had the smartphone in his hand, he took a few more photos while he was waiting for help.
Meanwhile, Michael Schwarzl was on his way. The Tyrolean works as a guide in a ski resort in Switzerland. There he got the call for help from the British. Schwarzl alerted his team and a helicopter – 45 minutes later the snowboarder was on his way to the hospital. The Brit survived. His Tyrolean rescuer then said: “He was lucky that he had his mobile phone with him. A few days later I had to go close to another casualty” – he had no signal and died.
