An iPhone found beside a road in Portland reportedly dropped from an Alaska Airlines jet after part of the fuselage detached in flight, immediately depressurizing the cabin. The iPhone is undamaged despite a 16,000-foot plunge.
Is that tough enough for you?
iPhone shrugs off 3-mile drop from Alaska Airlines plane
On Friday night, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 en route to Ontario, California had a door plug come off in flight. No one was killed, and only one person suffered minor injuries.
But small objects were sucked out. That includes multiple phones.
Seanathan Bates posted on X (formerly Twitter) about finding a working iPhone that fell from the flight. They said, “Survived a 16,000 foot drop perfectly in tact!”
Found an iPhone on the side of the road… Still in airplane mode with half a battery and open to a baggage claim for #AlaskaAirlines ASA1282 Survived a 16,000 foot drop perfectly in tact!
When I called it in, Zoe at @NTSB said it was the SECOND phone to be found. No door yet pic.twitter.com/CObMikpuFd
— Seanathan Bates (@SeanSafyre) January 7, 2024
The National Transportation Safety Board told The Guardian that the handset probably fell from the jet. “That was one of the phones collected that is likely from the flight. It has since been turned over to Alaska Airlines.”
Not only was the iPhone tough enough to survive a fall of three miles, its battery had dropped only about 50% in the day and half after its plunge. If the owner had used Find My, they could have located the handset themselves.
