Research: Has SOS mode ever saved anyone?

After reading smithd1’s first post last night, I was left wondering… Has there EVER been a story of a flashlight’s SOS mode saving anyone? Ideally there would be a credible source for the story. But I think we will need to expand the search to include rumors :stuck_out_tongue:

…there’s no shortage of people that wish it was never invented.

Not SOS specially (as far as I know), but blinky mode helped (not a rumor): (Serious) Why do so many cheap lights have unavoidable strobe modes? - #15 by Mike_C
I’m sure that if they had used SOS instead a blinky mode it would have yielded the same result. If something like that happened to me and I had SOS on my light I would certainly use ut.

Interesting. I can see how anything other than a constant shine would be viewed as communication. Like a car’s flasher lights.

…Oh God, did I start something? Is my next car going to have an SOS mode?

especially when you got no spare battery a SOS wont last pretty long as its usually on highest mode,
some lights got beacon which run very long which is more useful, if someone in a helicopter gets near the beacon you can switch to SOS

Good question. Interested in the answer, but I think the future will be different than the past. Given that most search and rescue folks probably recongnize an SOS signal, the increasing popularity and reach of flashlights, and the increasing capacities of cells, I expect that there will be cases of folks saved by SOS flashlights as time passes.

There does appear to be one case, but link in the below thread is dead.

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?198121-Flashlight-SOS-rescue-in-the-news

EDIT:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/20/AR2008052002322.html?noredirect=on

What kind of rescue party are we imagining?

Joe - Hey Bob, look someone is waving a flashlight over there!
Bob - But it doesn’t spell SOS in Morse code. Let’s go the other direction.

SOS mode has saved me from enjoying an otherwise nice flashlight.

if you are on a life boat on the ocean and see a ship or hear a helicopter you can use the SOS

but is you are in the wilderness in the mountans or so starnded hungry anf freezing, a SOS would burn battery in 3-4 hours while a beacon can last for several nights or even a full week
you can put it on a gopod place and sleep the night instead waiting to hear or see a helicopter and turn on the flashlight
Beacon in middle of nowhere is seen as good as SOS from a plane or helicopter, this is why planes use it as lights on top of relative low brightness permanent lights

:+1:

SOS mode is useless, at least for me.

Our local water rescue team has located several people lost at night in the Sound by having them blink the light on their cell phone (but not SOS). It does need to be some sort of pattern to help distinguish it from all the other flashing buoys.

I had one Day a Niwalker Thrower compareable to the TN42 in my window testing runtime on it
targeting the football stadion right on the other side of the street, about 100m

and i have to say next morning at about 8:00 when it was already daylight outside I had the police ring me out of my bed
so SOS is not very useful in a urban region, only causes trouble

If you are in real danger, using a computer’s SOS is more often than not, far less attention grabbing in today’s world.
Think about it. If someone see a computer blinking a light, they assume all is normal. They don’t stare to decode it in-case it spells SOS. Towers and planes blink all the time, and I don’t try to decode them before looking away. If someone see a human blinking a light, you check it out ASAP. The erratic human flashing will alert more people than a computer flashing. And which way do you point it? Which direction is help coming from?

Perhaps more importantly, if you can reach for your flashlight and grip it to change modes, you have one working arm. You can use that arm to wave the flashlight. This is the ultimate SOS, because it actually looks like a human in distress. People will drop what they are doing to run to you if they recognize the motion of a human arm waving. If the light is in SOS mode, that motion is imperceptible.

SOS mode has saved me from enjoying an otherwise nice flashlight.

hahahahahahahahahaaaa!!! I needed that!

Sometimes many types of SOS signals are ignored. Reminds me of this story where the police did nothing for the longest of times. All over the news here many years ago. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/why-were-sos-signals-ignored/article20441126/

SOS, as usually deployed on a light, forces unwanted extra presses and tedious motions to using an otherwise great light. at the same time it’s a “feature” you rarely if ever will need.

If………SOS mode were deployed so that it required a LONG press or some other special motion to activate it, it might be more tolerable.
On higher end LED lights it usually is.

But having to cycle past it every freakin time I use the light is a royal PITA IMO.

Hey manufacturers……STOP putting it on every light already! (or make it require a long press etc)

SOS, when included in a song, got “Message in a Bottle” to number 65 on Rolling Stones list of the 100 greatest guitar songs so it definitely helped Sting and The Police.

A good beacon is useful for outdoors type people. Much easier for searchers to locate you quicker. I don’t go out in my boat at night without flares, or a flashlight with a beacon.

It has only saved me from being bored to death…on 1 or 2 occasions.

I’d say “lightning” mode would be the best attention-getter.

“Looks like an electrical short circuit, better check it ….”

I forget which light spelled out SO-SO-SO a few years back.