Bundaberg teenager Jake McCollum was on his first solo bushwalk near Mount Walsh in Biggenden when a slip on mossy rock sent him falling more than 50 meters down a steep rock face. His phone screen shattered in the fall, the heat was intense at 36°C, and he was low on water. Alone and injured, he crawled to his backpack and reached the ACR ResQLink 400 Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) his parents had insisted he carry.

Jake activated the PLB, which immediately alerted Search and Rescue. When they were unable to reach Jake by phone, they contacted his parents, who confirmed he was hiking alone at Mount Walsh. Despite his damaged phone, Jake managed to answer a call through his AirPods long enough to report: “Mum, I’m hurt.”

As his parents drove toward the mountain, Search and Rescue teams mobilized. At the same time, the LifeFlight aeromedical crew began scanning the rugged terrain. Jake had unintentionally veered off the main route and fallen from a neighboring pinnacle, making him far from where his family first expected him to be.

Hidden under thick foliage, dressed in dark clothing, and lying face down in deep shadow, Jake was extremely difficult to spot. It wasn’t until the helicopter descended low that aircrew officer Shayne White saw Jake’s legs beneath the canopy and guided the aircraft in for the rescue.

Jake was found alive and conscious, and despite the height of the fall, he is expected to make a full recovery. His injuries are healing naturally, and he avoided long-term or life-altering damage.

Jake’s ability to activate his ACR PLB after the fall was a critical factor in ensuring rescuers could locate him quickly in such challenging terrain.

ACR’s Personal Locator Beacon made the difference, and ultimately helped save his life.