On a quiet Wednesday morning in Manchester, Vermont, Dispatcher Tom Best was working a routine shift at the small communication center he oversees. Alone in the room, he kept an eye on calls for the town’s police, fire, and rescue agencies when the familiar chime of RapidSOS broke the silence.

“Nothing good happens up there at that hour,” Best recalls.

Moments later, the 911 call came in. A small plane carrying three people had crashed on the mountainside. Miraculously, all were alive but injured. For Best, the challenge was clear — there was no playbook for a plane crash, and minutes mattered.

RapidSOS data gave him an immediate head start. Before the pilot’s call was even patched through, Best already knew the crash site. “The heads up was huge,” he explains.

Best quickly adapted. With no formal “plane crash” protocol, he modified a first-alarm structure fire response, calling in mutual aid departments with off-road equipment, alongside local police and rescue squads. Recognizing the steep and rocky terrain, he immediately requested aviation support from New York State Police.

By sheer luck, timing was on their side. A New York Rangers helicopter unit was training with its rescue winch at the airport that very morning. When Best’s call came through, the crew was already loaded and ready to deploy.

The helicopter used the same coordinates that dispatchers had pushed through RapidSOS to hover directly above the crash site. Even with snow cover and dense trees obscuring the wreck, the pinpoint location cut search time dramatically. Within minutes, responders were climbing to the victims while aviation units stood by overhead.

In the aftermath, Best reflected on the changing face of 911. As a secondary PSAP, his center often receives transferred calls without precise location data. He stresses how essential it is to have RapidSOS open at all times.

That belief has turned Best into an advocate across Vermont. He regularly brings RapidSOS into training sessions for other agencies, showing firsthand how the platform helps shave time off responses — whether for hikers on golf courses, stranded snowmobilers, or, in this rare case, a downed plane.

On February 26, 2020, those seconds, combined with technology, training, and coordination, meant three passengers walked away from a crash that could easily have ended in tragedy.