Follow-Up: Cellular Switch Had Wrong Numbers

A wireless carrier serving Santa Fe (NM) discovered that its switching computer was mis-programmed to route calls from two sectors of an antenna, and that’s why calls from a lost hiker in a wilderness area last month kept being sent to administrative lines at the county’s public safety comm center. A state police helicopter that was dispatched to rescue Megumi Yamamoto from Mt. Baldy later crashed and killed her and pilot Sgt. Andy Tingwell when weather closed in around the aircraft. Megumi had used her cellular telephone to call after becoming separated from her hiking partner. However, since her calls were routed to an admin line, they didn’t show her location, and she couldn’t accurately describe where she was. County officials claim there was no response delay, but it took several 911 calls and transfers to the state police before the helicopter took off. They now say the wireless carrier performed an audit of all tower sectors in the state, insuring that they all are correctly routed to 911 lines that would provide Phase II location information for incoming calls.