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Case Study

Plum Powered Search and Rescue

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Overview

In search and rescue operations, timely communication can improve the chance of survival. In areas with limited or no cellular signal, Plum Cases provide reliable connectivity that lets a search team map, track progress, and communicate in real time.

About

Randall’s Adventure & Training Search and Rescue (RAT-SAR) is dedicated to remote wilderness search and rescue, operating out of the Southeastern US. The team is typically called into action when a wilderness search has gone three or four days without results, coming in to operate as an incident management or search team. Because most incidents are in remote wilderness, the environments typically have little to no cellular service. RAT-SAR can run a rescue operation without connectivity, but having a connection is a significant advantage — providing mapping and tracking capabilities that would otherwise be unavailable.

Challenge

Before Plum, tracking a search meant working off printed paper maps and repeatedly leaving the field to find signal. As Jeff Randall, Operations Officer at RAT-SAR, explains: leaving the area to download what the team needed and returning was time that could have been spent on the mission.

Randall is always looking for better communications tools, since communication is the downfall of any search and rescue operation. He first heard about the Plum Case during a large search and rescue in Tennessee, when a friend from Tennessee EMA told him how well their Plum Case performed in rural areas and suggested he try it.

Before we had our Plum Case, we would print paper maps to track the search. A lot of times I would leave the area to get service, download whatever we needed, and then come back. That's time that could be spent on the mission.
Jeff Randall, Operations Officer, RAT-SAR

Solution

The Plum Case enables active intelligence sharing, including map sharing and real-time GPS tracking. Its open-source topography tools let RAT-SAR collaboratively map the area and update it with search data in real time.

RAT-SAR creates a map of the scene, builds out all the search segments, and distributes the map to the team via a QR code — something that’s impossible without cellular service or Wi-Fi. The search team logs in to the Plum Case on location, and even when members are dispersed too far to connect, a momentary signal will drop a GPS marker, allowing the team to actively track in areas with poor cellular coverage. If RAT-SAR needs to reach another agency or team, they can do it from basecamp instead of leaving the area to make contact.

Outcome

The Plum Case has compressed RAT-SAR’s search timeframe by delivering real-time data exceptionally fast — immediately, in some cases. Previously, the team had to return to base camp, debrief, and manually map GPS coordinates. Now that data arrives in real time.

Now with Plum, we get that data in real-time. The bottom line is that in search and rescue, timely information is critical, and the Plum Case has the potential to help save lives.