Find My iPhone Is Helping The Navy Find A Plane Crash In Chile! [Update: Found, All Passengers Dead]

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The Find My iPhone feature that Apple offers for free to users packing iPhones is helping the Navy to locate the wreckage of a plane that crashed just off the island of Robinson Crusoe in Chile. Rescue teams have yet been able to locate the plane since it went down, but thanks to Apple’s service, they are now one step closer.

The plane crashed after attempting to make two landings, according to 9to5 Mac, but was blown off course and finally smashed down carrying 17 passengers. Radio silence.

At present, rescue teams are still unable to find the wreckage, but they are at least a little bit closer thanks to the Find My iPhone feature present in iOS.

In an email to 9to5 Mac, an “acquaintance of one of the victims” reveals that a passenger on the plane was carrying an iPhone and that their relatives have since logged into the Find My iPhone service in a bid to locate the device. Apparently, they were able to acquire coordinated of the last known location of the plane before it crashed and have passed these on to the Navy to help their search.

The email, machine translated, reads:

The Admiral Francisco García-Huidobrosaid the finding that strongly called attention today and that has to do with an iPhone one of the crash victims at Juan Fernandez , on a beach in Bahia Carvajal. The phone signal was at times, thanks the operation of GPS, however, eventually the water off. However, Garcia-Huidobro said that “plots (locations) table position,” so you know exactly the place where he issued last signal, which will be released tomorrow. Force is expected to Navy Special down at this point and achieve rescue apparatus in the fifth day of searching. The iPhone would be in the vicinity of where they found the crashed plane’s wheel on Friday.

With every passing hour, things look even more grim, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that rescue teams find the plane soon, with all passengers safe. Sounds like that iPhone is toast, though.

Update: Sadly, the plane has been found, and all passengers are reported dead. What a tragedy.

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