When his kayak overturned in fast moving water while on Snake River in Idaho, Tom Adams lost his keys, fishing pole, wallet and iPhone.
However, three days later, a dive team found the items — including the iPhone, still in working order. “To all our amazement, [the phone] was still on!” Adams told the East Idaho News. “It was still alarming from my Sunday morning wake-up call reminder.”
The iPhone was recovered by the Bingham County Search and Rescue Dive Team. The group uses both volunteers and local law enforcement for rescue and recovery operations. “They use opportunities like this to practice and get more dive time in to prepare for the real calls, and more important events such as lifesaving,” Adams said. “Many members of the dive team met at the boat ramp, geared up, and hit the water. Because of the current, they had to use a safety line.”
The iPhone, along with Tom Adams’ keys, was found within 20 minutes of them entering the water. The other items were also recovered. Adams himself was fortunately not injured in the capsizing.
“My family and I are incredibly grateful to the Bingham County Search and Rescue Dive Team,” Adams said. “We were so impressed with all of them and are grateful they use these opportunities to practice for the real, and more important, duty of saving lives later on.”
iPhone can take a dipping and keep on ticking
The current iPhone 12 has an IP68 rating. That means it can survive being submersed in water to a depth of 20 feet for half an hour. The fact that an iPhone was able to survive considerably longer than that in fast-moving, cold water is pretty darn impressive. It’s not all that unusual, though. Earlier this month, we wrote about a developer who managed to drop his iPhone 12 Pro into a canal in Berlin. He was able to fish it out again using a magnetic rod which attached to its MagSafe connector.
Even more impressive was a similar incident involving an iPhone owner who dropped her iPhone into the Thames river in London. When she eventually recovered it two months later, she found it still functioned. It isn’t only iPhones, either. An Apple Watch was dropped into a manmade lake in Utah and sat there for 9 months — and kept on ticking.
Apple doesn’t make a big thing of these incidents, of course. While its devices turn out to be pretty darn durable, there are surely plenty of stories that don’t have such a happy ending. And remember: From sludge to other detritus, there’s plenty in rivers and lakes that can harm your iPhone as well as water. Still, the volume of these stories is pretty darn impressive.
Have you ever had any amazing near-misses or astonishing survival incidents with your iPhone? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: East Idaho News
Via: iMore
