Overview
- Jake McCollum fell about 80 metres near the Mount Walsh summit during his first solo bushwalk, suffering a fractured spine, broken ribs, internal bleeding and a head injury.
- The teen activated a personal locator beacon, with the alert received in Canberra before his parents began calling his damaged phone.
- He answered via Bluetooth headphones that had fallen nearby, staying in contact for more than five hours as his parents relayed information to authorities while driving from Bundaberg.
- Rescuers struggled to find him because he was off the main trail and the beacon signal was bouncing off rock faces, with a helicopter eventually spotting his legs roughly five hours after the fall.
- LifeFlight crews winched in, stabilised him for over an hour, and airlifted him to hospital for several days of recovery, with officials later saying they might not have found him without the working headphones and phone.