Cell phone tech brings lost girls home

KALISPELL, MT — The simple act of calling for help from a cell phone played a huge part in two girls making it off of Big Mountain safely Sunday morning. It’s all because of a technology called triangulation.

First a person calls 911. Then, the cell phone’s signals bounce off of three or more cell towers. Then computers many miles away at a phone company’s facilities calculate just where that call might have come from.

“If you’re on a cell phone where we get the latitude and longitude lines, we’re going to be able to find you,” said Flathead 911 Center Manager Michelene Provo. “Just sit tight.”

Triangulation that occurred during the girls’ phone calls helped dispatch workers replay the girls’ possible location to search and rescue crews. Their calls began around 5:30 pm on Saturday.

They spent several hours on Big Mountain after skiing out of bounds. Crews located the girls at two in the morning.

The latitude and longitude info had proven useful.

“The responders that were there said they pretty much walked right up to them,” said Search and Rescue Coordinator Brian Heino.

They had ended up on logging land and took cover under a wood pile. It was the ending everyone had hoped for.

“It is nice to get closure on this, knowing the girls were okay,” said Provo.

Read the story here.

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