Plane crash proves usefulness of what3words app to North Yorkshire Emergency Services

Yorkshire Ambulance, and North Yorkshire Fire Control and Pickering Fire Service say the what3words app enables them to pinpoint the exact location in a shorter time.

Their comments follow a plane crash in Scarborough earlier this week in which what3words played a vital role allowed them to find and help the injured pilot.

A spokesperson said: “Our efforts were aided by the great information and location details provided by North Yorkshire Fire control room using ‘what3words’ to pinpoint the exact location of the incident.”

The importance of the location app has been highlighted by new data gathered in a voluntary survey of police, fire and ambulance services.

The survey found that more than half (56%) of emergency services across the UK receiving daily calls from people who don’t know exactly where they are or struggle to describe the incident’s location.

The survey also found that 78% of Emergency Services surveyed agree with the statement “what3words saves us time”, with almost ¼ saying that what3words saves over ten minutes per call.

Co-founded in London in 2013 by Chris Sheldrick, what3words is a simple way to talk about precise locations via iOS and Android and online map.

The app divides the globe into 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares and give each square a unique combination of three words: a what3words address.

Millions of what3words addresses are in now in use around the world.