(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Now that’s a durability test: An iPhone survived a 16,000-foot fall after it was sucked out of a plane.
This past weekend, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 grabbed headlines after a door-sized section of the plane was blown off during a flight from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured on board the Boeing 737 Max 9 craft. But the gaping hole caused several items from passengers to be sucked out, including at least one iPhone.
Miraculously, though, the iPhone was later found on the ground near Portland, Oregon, completely intact and working. A game designer named Seanathan Bates said he recovered the phone while on a walk after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) told local residents about the debris that may have fallen from the aircraft.
“Found an iPhone on the side of the road…” he tweeted on Sunday. “Still in airplane mode with half a battery and open to a baggage claim for #AlaskaAirlines ASA1282.”
Based on a picture Bates uploaded, the recovered iPhone appears to be an iPhone 15 Pro or an iPhone 14 Pro. The device was also protected with a case. In addition, the bottom of the iPhone was connected to a now torn charging cable.
In a video, Bates added that he was initially skeptical that the iPhone had come from the airplane after he recovered the device on a roadside. “I was thinking this could have just been thrown out of a car, or someone dropped it while they were jogging, but I found that it was still pretty clean, no scratches on it, sitting under a bush,” he said.
Bates then noticed the phone had no screen lock. This enabled him to flip through the device, and find a travel confirmation email for Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 belonging to the phone's owner. He’s since returned the device to the NTSB.
The iPhone wasn't the only electronic device to be sucked out of the plane. During a Sunday press conference, the NTSB confirmed that a second cell phone was recovered from a yard.
The Alaska Airlines flight suffered the blowout when a door plug—which is used to cover an emergency exit—abruptly detached from the aircraft. The cause of the incident remains unclear, although the blown-out door plug has been recovered. In the meantime, the FAA has grounded certain Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft from operating in the US until inspections are completed.