Canadian rescuers track lost man via helicopter-mounted cell tower

North Shore Rescue in B.C. believes it’s the first rescue team in Canada to use a helicopter-mounted cell tower to trace a person’s location.

The team uses something called a LifeSeeker unit attached to their helicopter that can pick up a lost person’s cell signal in a place without any other cell towers. In a Facebook post debriefing the rescue, North Shore Rescue also mentioned that it needed to gain authorization from Spectrum Management Canada, Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada, and under the Radiocommunication Act.

The Lifeseeker also has built-in privacy protections that only allow it to search for specific IMEI or IMSI numbers for the phone they’re looking for. To get this for the lost man, the team had to work with the local police and the network’s carrier by invoking the Missing Persons Act. This is how a regular phone tower tracking ping works, but in this case, it’s not a standard cell tower.

Image credit: North Shore Rescue 

Source: North Shore Rescue