Couple in car survive 300-foot fall into canyon in California - Insider

• A young mates fell 300 feet from Angeles Crest Highway northeast of Los Angeles connected Tuesday.
• Cloe Fields told Insider that an iPhone diagnostic she didn't cognize she had whitethorn person saved their lives.
• The caller Emergency SOS diagnostic detects crashes and uses satellites to interaction exigency services.

Cloe Fields and her boyfriend, Christian Zelada, connected Tuesday were taking a scenic thrust done the Angeles National Forest, arsenic they often did, erstwhile things took a crook for the worst— their car went implicit the borderline of the upland and tumbled 300 feet earlier landing, upside down, successful the canyon below.

"Angeles Crest is our backyard," Fields, 23, told Insider of the road that traverses the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. "We emotion driving up there. It's beautiful, particularly aft the rain."

But astatine astir the halfway mark, the mates was being intimately followed and honked astatine by different conveyance trying to walk connected the dramatically winding roads, which are often utilized arsenic a backdrop for car commercials. As they pulled implicit to springiness the operator immoderate country to pass, the car mislaid its traction and continued toward the cliff borderline earlier spinning off.

"The adjacent happening we know, we were falling," Fields said, adding she remembered saying her boyfriend's sanction arsenic they approached the edge: "I inactive couldn't registry successful my head."

She said she was successful daze aft they went over, but Zelada, 24, kept saying, "We're okay, we're okay, we're okay," until astir halfway down, erstwhile helium thought to himself: "This is it. This is however it's going to end."

But aft the car landed — upside down and connected the level of Monkey Canyon — they were miraculously alive.

They rapidly unbuckled their spot belts, crawled retired of the vehicle, and checked each different for injuries oregon protruding objects but recovered nothing, conscionable immoderate tiny cuts and bruises.

"The archetypal happening I said was, 'This didn't happen,'" Fields said. "I was successful disbelief the full time."

It was astir 2 p.m., astir 40 degrees outside, and the mates was hundreds of feet beneath the highway. They checked the car for their phones but they were gone. Luckily, Zelada rapidly recovered Fields' iPhone 14 astir 10 yards up the hill. It was shattered and — arsenic they expected — had nary reception.

"Anyone that goes up the Angeles Crest already knows determination is nary work up there. It's precise remote," Fields said.

But a connection had popped up connected the telephone anyway, saying a clang had been detected and to swipe to interaction exigency services. Though the surface looked similar the telephone "took a bullet," it was inactive successful bully capable signifier to text, which Fields' credited to her having a surface protector.

They began texting with the exigency services provider, explaining what had happened and saying they needed help. The idiosyncratic connected the different extremity would instruct them to locomotion a definite mode oregon clasp their telephone up successful a definite direction, successful bid to assistance their messages and determination accusation spell through.

Within 30 minutes, they were airlifted retired of the canyon.

The connection that appeared connected the iPhone was portion of Apple's caller Emergency SOS via satellite feature, which has Crash Detection and Fall Detection bundle and uses satellites to interaction exigency services erstwhile an iPhone is retired of range. The diagnostic connects the iPhone idiosyncratic to an exigency telephone center, which tin cod accusation and notify rescue services.

The feature, which Fields did not adjacent cognize was connected the iPhone she had lone precocious gotten, launched successful mid-November. It's presently connected iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro devices moving iOS 16.1 oregon aboriginal and is disposable successful the US, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, and the UK.

Emergency SOS via outer besides allows users to stock their determination with friends and household if they'd similar to cheque successful portion traveling disconnected the grid. It's besides escaped for 2 years aft an iPhone 14 is archetypal activated, according to Apple.

"If we didn't find my telephone oregon nary 1 knew we were down there, it could've been a batch worse," Fields said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the Los Angeles County Fire Department, patrol units, and aerial rescue each responded to the country aft being contacted by the exigency work center, LASD Sergeant John Gilbert said successful a connection provided to Insider.

Fields said she was inactive shaken up and hyperventilating arsenic the rescuers arrived connected the scene, and 1 fireman tried to cheer her up by saying: "Smile, you're alive."

Even arsenic she was being lifted retired of the canyon and up into a helicopter, her encephalon was inactive processing what had happened. And though she's acrophobic of heights, each she remembered reasoning was: "Thank God, we're going, we're leaving this."

Photos and videos shared by LASD showed the conveyance arsenic it was spotted from the chopper arsenic good arsenic the infinitesimal the mates was lifted retired of the canyon.

The mates was transported to a infirmary and evaluated but were backmost astatine location with their canine aboriginal that night. They some person had headaches and cervix pain, and Zelada whitethorn person a concussion, but she said she was grateful they had made it done the ordeal comparatively unscathed.

Fields said it volition instrumentality much clip for her to process what happened, but that the near-death acquisition reminded her that "life goes on."

"The questions I've been reasoning to myself are: What's the crushed wherefore I'm inactive here? What was the purpose? What's God's intent for maine to support connected going?"

Have a quality tip? Contact this newsman at kvlamis@insider.com.