This Small Team of Dispatchers Saves Lives Via Satellite

When the message arrived from the Alaskan wilderness, it was simple, brief, and urgent: tipped raft. The two paddlers who sent it had just almost drowned, and their food and gear had disappeared downriver. But they had one thing going for them, a small, handheld emergency beacon they could use to share their location and ask for help. It sent a signal more than 3,000 miles south, to Montgomery, Texas, where responders helped coordinate their rescue.

Almost anywhere in the world, if someone calls the equivalent of 911 on a satellite phone or presses the SOS button on a dedicated GPS tracker, the message likely goes to a small team in Montgomery at the International Emergency Response Coordination Center, or IERCC. Unlike your local emergency dispatch center, it’s a private, for-profit venture. A rotating crew of six is on hand at all times to report the incident to search and rescue personnel, direct them to the alert’s point of origin, and help coordinate the response until the sender is safe. The Texas center has assisted more than 10,000 rescues in 169 countries, from the Scottish Highlands to eastern Tajikistan. “We are the only people that provide a monitoring service which is truly global,” says Peter Chlubek, co-founder and executive chairman of the IERCC’s parent company, Geos Worldwide Ltd., which specializes in travel safety and rescue services.