May 19, 2003
Men rescued from the sea thanks to SMS SOS
Three men were rescued off the Isle of Wight, after their tri-maran overturned and they sent out an SOS by SMS. They had first tried to call the coastguards but the signal gave out.
One of the men then sent a text message to his father, who alerted the coastguards, who in turn were able to locate and rescue them. Reported by BBC, Ananova and with more technical detail, by the Yachting Universe.
The coastguards admit that they have been alerted to marine incidents by text messaging many times. And a similar incident received media attention in February 2001, when a British woman -- who was one of 11 passengers stranded on a sinking boat off Indonesia -- sent an "SOS" text message to her boyfriend who was drinking at a pub in England. His response sparked a coordinated rescue mission by the Falmouth Coastguard, Indonesian authorities and the Australian Coastguard (cf Wired).
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