On Monday afternoon (July 21st) Williams Lake RCMP was advised of a “Crash Detection Notification” from what Police believe to be an Apple electronic device.
“Essentially what was relayed to us was that there was a strong possibility that a plane had crashed somewhere at or near Horsefly Lake,” Sargeant Brad McKinnon said, “Our Police officers as well as several other First Responders including Search and Rescue responded to the area. Once on scene and through some investigative efforts we were able to later to determine that NO plane crash had taken place and it appeared to be a malfunction with an Apple electronic device”.
McKinnon said there was an individual in the area camping and fishing, they had placed their cellular device on the dashboard of their vessel, hit some rough waters, that in conjunction with the heat caused the device to emit some type of satellite text messaging to an emergency contact.
“That individual then contacted us and somehow this software beamed what was taking place with the phone bouncing around the dashboard that a plane had crashed.” Mckinnon said, “We can confirm that that did not happen, that there were no issues for public safety, nobody was hurt or injured and that all involved parties were fine.”
Mckinnon noted that the Department is currently in the process of working with Apple Canada to apprise Apple of this incident in the hopes that they might be able to improve their software and or their technology for incidents such as what we dealt with yesterday.
He said there have been quite a number of incidents like that in the Cariboo area throughout the Summer months.
“Our detachment has had several and while we applaud and are quite pleased with some of these technological advancements, we also recognize that they sometimes come with their challenges and the purpose of reaching out to Apple was to kind of help them be aware of the incident and the demands that that places on all First Responder Groups particularly for something that may not require such a robust response,” Mckinnon added.
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