A false emergency alert from a cellphone Monday afternoon, July 13, set off a three-hour search for a downed aircraft on Mount Pisgah, drawing more than a dozen agencies to the heavily wooded area.
The Vermont State Police received the automated alert at about 1 p.m. indicating a possible plane crash with multiple occupants. Responders included state police, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, the Orleans County Sheriff's Department, the Vermont Division of Fire Safety, Glover Ambulance Service, the Westmore Fire Department, the Charleston Fire Department and Newport Ambulance Service. The National Guard conducted an aerial search, while state police and fire safety officials deployed drones. Troopers, game wardens, deputies and EMS personnel searched on foot.
Police identified the phone's owner during the search but could not reach them. After about three hours, the owner contacted state police and said they had been hiking on the mountain and had not been in a crash. No evidence of a downed aircraft or injuries was found, and the search was called off.
Police said the cellphone never left the owner's possession, and the cause of the automated alert remains unclear.
NEK will be looking into the reliability of automated emergency alert systems and whether similar false alarms have occurred in Vermont.
Originally reported by Newport Dispatch.
Photo: From the nek (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0). Photo is illustrative and not from the scene.
Log in as a subscriber to comment, or become a member.