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Man Saved From Certain Death by His BlackBerry

by Caleb Johnson on July 1, 2009 at 03:39 PM

How's this for a new BlackBerry commercial? A skier glides down a powdery, white slope in Switzerland. Suddenly, he falls into a crevice. Just before he slips farther, his BlackBerry (stored in his chest pocket) catches the ice and saves him from falling to his death. It might not be a practical way to sell a product, but the phone company won't have to search for a spokesman.

According to a report by The Sun, David Fitzherbert's half-inch wide BlackBerry provided just enough girth to keep him wedged in one of the Matterhorn's icy crevices, estimated to be about 700-feet-deep, while his mountain guide contacted a rescue team that could pull him out. Fitzherbert dropped 70-feet down a crevice while skiing down a glacier. He was stuck in the crevice for two hours while rescuers drilled, dug and eventually winched him out using a helicopter.

And to top it all off, Fitzherbert told The Sun that he used the phone to call his wife from the hospital and let her know he was alive -- he walked away with hypothermia and a concussion. [From The Sun, via Engadget]

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Tags: blackberry, death, matterhorn, rescue, skiing, telecommunications, top, weird

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